Cassiopeia Malfoy and the Almost Slytherin - Hiatus
by Yuki and Yuri
Summary: This story outlines the Hogwarts life of Cassie Malfoy, younger sister to Scorpius. Told completely from her first person account, it includes several dozen Weasleys, a handful of Potters, and the complete story of the up-and-down rollercoaster ride that is Hogwarts in 2019-2027. Laugh, cry, and get ready for some serious feels as you open the book to the life of Cassiopeia Malfoy.
1. Scorpius and the Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank Longbottom II and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

**Scorpius's Point of View**  
The first and most obvious thing that I can say about the Weasley/Potter clan is that they are a huge bunch.

I knew that from the moment that I saw them on the Platform the year that my father dropped me off for my first year at Hogwarts. I had looked over at them all standing there and chatting, and the sight that had met my eyes had been simultaneously overwhelming and comforting.

They had been in small groups bunched together into one big group.

The first was unmistakable, with two adults and three children. The man of the first group had raven-colored hair, bright green eyes, and an unmistakable scar on his forehead: it was Harry Potter. The woman next to him had auburn hair and brown eyes, and must have been his wife, Ginny Weasley-Potter. I knew from what my father said at home that the three children with them were there children, James Potter II, Albus Potter, and Lily Potter II. The first was a year older than me, the second the same age, and the third was two years younger.

The second group was slightly less obvious, but still unmistakable. The man was obviously from the famous Weasley family, with red hair that was almost orange. He had freckles and, though he was too far away to tell what color his eyes were, by the woman standing next to him I could determine that he was Ron Weasley. His wife, Hermione Granger-Weasley, had mousy brown hair that was pulled up into a messy bun and held tight to two children who I knew to be Rose Weasley (my age) and Hugo Weasley. Rose had Weasley red hair but other than that she looked exactly like her mother, with bushy hair and a round face like the woman next to her. Hugo looked more like his father, with the same hair color and same freckles.

The third group I noticed came up to the first two about ten minutes after they arrived, and were it not for the fact that the man was missing an ear and the woman was dark skinned, I wouldn't have been able to truly tell who it was. But, as they did have these tell-tale signs, I was able to tell that they were in fact George and Angelina Weasley. With them they had two children, one boy and one girl that I couldn't remember the names of. The boy had fair skin, freckles, and red hair like his father, while the girl took after her mother in looks. The boy seemed to be a year or so older than me, and the girl about the same age as young Lily Potter.

The next group that came up was easy to recognize, mainly by the woman, who had blonde hair, unlike the rest of the clan, and who I was able to recognize as Fleur Weasley, the wife of Bill Weasley. I only saw two children with them, but I could have sworn that I vaguely remembered there being three. With the adults were a girl and a boy, the girl seeming to look like a carbon copy of her mother except for her strawberry blonde hair coloring, while the boy looked like his father, with slightly lighter red in his hair coloring. The girl and boy seemed to be around fifteen and thirteen respectively.

The last group to come was, by deduction, Percy Weasley and his muggleborn (my father had stopped using the word Mudblood after the war) wife, Audrey Weasley. I saw that they had two girls who undoubtedly looked like their father, with Weasley hair and freckles, and were around thirteen and nine respectively. I believe that one of them was named Mandy or something like that, though I couldn't quite remember.

As I watched the group all come together, I realized another thing about them all as well. They were smiling at each other and talking and laughing as though they were old friends, not relatives. They engulfed each other in hugs, talked animatedly, and the children even began to run around the train station together, playing and having a good time.

In my family, we don't usually get to do that. Oh yeah, in case you haven't figured it out yet, the person currently speaking is Scorpius Malfoy, and my father would be the one and only Draco Malfoy.

In my family, when we (rarely) come together as a whole, it's usually full of insincere pleasantries, sneers, and fake smiles. I don't like to play with many of my cousins for the simple reason that, unlike my own father, their parents apparently never taught them that Mudblood is a rude word and they insist on using it in every other word of a conversation.

The third thing that I learned about the Potter/Weasley family happened after we got onto the train for school.

I had a bit of trouble finding a seat, so when I final came to a compartment, I was surprised to see that every single one of them from third year down was there. I tentatively popped my head in and looked at them for a moment before finally finding the courage to speak, by which time all eyes were on me.

"Hello," I said. "Um, I was wondering if there was any extra room in here. Everywhere else is full."

The boy that I had previously identified as Albus Potter was the first one to answer. "Of course," he said, smiling. "Come on, come sit down and you can introduce yourself to everybody."

As I sat down, I looked around me at the five or so Weasley/Potters that were already sitting there and breathed deeply for a moment before speaking. "My name is Scorpius Malfoy," I said quietly.

I don't know what I expected to hear then, probably a chorus of horrified gasps and shoves out of the compartment, but this did not happen. Instead, all of the children there simply nodded, and the girl I had thought to be Rose Weasley spoke.

"Nice to meet you Scorpius," she said. "My name is Rose, and I'm a first year along with Albus; there's James and Fred, who are best mates and second years; and then we have Louis, who is a third year." Every time that she said a new name she pointed to one of the children sitting around her.

"It's nice to meet all of you," I said. I debated asking the question that was now burning at my curiosity, but eventually I decided to get on and do it. "Why are you all being so nice to me?" I asked. "Nobody likes me when they learn who my dad is."

"Because," said James. "My dad told me all about what happened in the war, or at least an edited version and he said that your grandmum Narcissa and your father both helped him win; your dad in small ways perhaps, but I suppose he had no real option, and your grandmum did, so as far as I'm concerned I have no problem with your family, and much less you."

Suddenly Fred smirked from his seat next to James. "That is, until you do something to make us not like you, at which point you'll have the whole family to answer to."

I gulped audibly, and all of the kids laughed. "Anyway," I said after a moment. "I'll be back. I'm going to go see if I can get a snack off the trolley."

"Me too!" cried Albus from his seat, and then before I knew it me and him were on our way to the trolley, talking animatedly to each other along the way.

Nothing happened until we were making our way back, when we ran into another set of first years that Albus seemed to know, a boy and a girl with round faces and brown hair, and Albus began talking to them.

"Hey Frank!" he said happily before looking at the girl, who promptly blushed. "Hey Alice." He ended the sentence with a wink in the girl's direction before turning to me. "This is Frank and Alice Longbottom," he introduced. "Twins in our year. Their dad is the Herbology professor."

During the whole conversation, watching Albus interact with the almost-swooning girl in front of us, I realized the most important thing that I had learned about the Weasley/Potters thus far.

Albus Severus Potter was never going to be allowed to go anywhere near my little sister.


	2. Cassie and The Sorting

**Disclaimer: I dont own the Harry Potter books or any of the characters that you recognize from that series. I only own Cassie Malfoy, Frank Longbottom II, and Alice Longbottom II, as well as any other OC's that you might encounter in the reading of this fanfiction.**

_**Two Years Later**_

**First Year - Age Eleven  
Cassiopeia's Point of View**  
My name is Cassiopeia Astoria Malfoy, mainly called Cassie since I loathe my name in full and will punch anyone outside of my family to call me by it. The story I am about to tell you is about when I was eleven years old, a full two years younger than my older brother, Scorpius, and on my way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters for my first year at Hogwarts.

That day my parents, Draco and Astoria, decided that we would all take a family drive to the Platform instead of Apparating to the station, so we were all riding in the car. On my way, I considered myself to make sure that I was ready.

My white-blonde hair reached all the way down my back when it was down, but I had it up in a French braid, so it only reached midway down. My bangs had grown so long that they were now a part of the rest of my hair, so I didn't have to deal with them being in my face. I was wearing Muggle blue jeans and a light blue tank top, paired with a pair of white tennis shoes with light blue trim. My cat, a black calico kitten named Onyx that I had gotten in Diagon Alley the week before, was sleeping peacefully on my lap, the sound of her soft purring almost unheard over the purring of the car engine.

Eventually we made it to the station and, before I knew it, I was on the other side of the barrier and my mother was bent over me, hugging me so tightly I thought my eyes would pop straight out of my head as she said goodbye. "Mum," I wheezed. "You can let go now."

She let go of my and pulled back slightly at that. "I'm sorry baby," she said. "It's just, you're all grown up now. You're going to Hogwarts. Soon, you'll be seventeen and have to go out and-"

"Mum!" I chuckled. "It's okay! I'm only gone until summer."

Mum smiled. "I know," she said. She leaned down and gave me a small kiss on the forehead. "Just be careful and have fun."

I told my mum I would, and then five minutes later I was in a compartment on the train with my brother. "Are you ready for first year?" he asked me, smiling. I smiled back. He and I had always been close.

I nodded, but before I could say anything I suddenly heard a voice from behind me. "Well look at that," the voice said. "If it isn't little Cassie."

My hands clenched into fists at my side as I turned around. "Albus Severus Potter," I growled.

And indeed it was. Albus Potter was my mortal enemy ever since I had met him the summer after my brother's first year. Apparently they had met and become best friends, and therefore I was obligated to deal with his attitude because of it. It sucked.

He looked at my glaring face and smirked. He did that a lot. There was a reason he was put in Slytherin with Scor, I suppose.

I pretty much knew that I hated him the first time I met him. He came over to our house that summer for a sleepover with Scor. At the time, he wore muggle jeans and a red tee shirt, and his raven-colored hair was tussled as though he hadn't brushed it in a month. He wore his smirk then too, and I just knew I disliked him. Then he called me "little Cassie," and the decision was made. I hated him.

"Aww," he said. "Is little Cassie mad?"

"I told you not to call me that," I growled.

His smirk just got bigger, if anything. "And why should I do that?" he asked. "Are you gonna make me?"

"You just wait until we get to school," I said. "You'll see just how many hexes I know."

"You wouldn't even if you could," he sneered back at me. "You're too much of a sweetheart to do anything." He sneered as he said 'sweetheart,' and it didn't slip past me.

"You wanna bet?" I asked, unconsciously taking a step toward him as my voice raised.

"Yes," he said, walking forward a bit. "I do."

I narrowed my eyes and reached into my back pocket to get my wand, but suddenly a hand met mine and I looked back to see Scorpius standing there. "No," he mouthed.

I took a deep breath and closed by eyes. "Whatever," I said, looking back up at Albus, who was nearly three inches taller than me. "You aren't worth my time anyway."

And with that I turned on my heel and walked out of the compartment in search of another one.

I spent the rest of the train ride in an empty compartment by myself, staring out the window as Onyx slept on my lap. When it got dark I decided to change into my school robes and uniform, and then before I knew it the train had stopped and suddenly I was on the boats sitting next to a girl with red hair and very familiar almond-shaped eyes.

"Hello," the girl said, smiling. "My name is Lily Potter."

My heart dropped at the last name and I realized why the eyes were so familiar. They were Albus' eyes. I knew that he had a huge family, but I had never met anyone but his parents before. "Oh," I said. "My name is Cassie Malfoy."

"I know you!" said Lily. "You're the girl that Albus talks about. Scorpius's sister, yes?"

I frowned. Albus talked about me? "Yes," I said. "And you're Albus' sister?"

Lily nodded. "My cousins Roxanne and Lucy are in first year too," she said. "Do you wanna meet them when we get to the castle?"

"Sure," I said, smiling. Once I got over the fact that she was Albus' little sister, I realized that she was actually nice to talk to.

Eventually we made our way to the castle, where we stood in the hallway for a good few minutes, during which point I was able to meet Roxanne and Lucy Weasley, as well as Hugo Weasley. All of them were starting their first year, and all of them were Lily's cousins.

Man, the Weasley/Potter family is huge.

Roxanne had dark skin, with dark brown eyes and black hair. She was also the only Wotter that doesnt have some sort of red in their hair, according to Lily. She was thin and tall, and very pretty. I could already tell that guys would be flocking to her around the time we were in third year and could go to Hogsmead.

Lucy was slightly shorter than Roxanne, but still taller than Lily by an inch. She had orange-red hair and hazel eyes, and was thin. She smiled a lot and was likable, as well as a bit mischievous, which Roxanne told me was weird because her father was the most serious person in the world.

Hugo had orange-red hair as well, and freckles. He was about three inches taller than Roxanne, and thin like the rest of his family. When he smiled he had a dimple on his left cheek. He seemed sweet, and was really easy to get along with.

It wasnt too long after I met them, however, that we were all called into the Great Hall, standing in a straight line as we made our way in. I could feel the stares of all of the older kids, and was instantly nervous. I looked over at the Slytherin Table, and locked eyes with my brother.

Scorpius smiled at me reassuringly. "You can do it," he mouthed. I smiled before looking back at the front of the room, where an old, tattered hat sat. Then, before I could even blink, suddenly a tear near the seam ripped open and a crackly voice began _singing_.

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_  
_But don't judge on what you see,_  
_I'll eat myself if you can find_  
_A smarter hat than me._

_"You can keep your bowlers black,_  
_Your top hats sleek and tall,_  
_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_  
_And I can cap them all._

_"There's nothing hidden in your head_  
_The Sorting Hat can't see,_  
_So try me on and I will tell you_  
_Where you ought to be._

_"You might belong in Gryffindor,_  
_Where dwell the brave at heart,_  
_Their daring, nerve and chivalry,_  
_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_"You might belong in Hufflepuff_  
_Where they are just and loyal,_  
_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,_  
_And unafraid of toil;_

_"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_  
_If you've a ready mind,_  
_Where those of wit and learning,_  
_Will always find their kind;_

_"Or perhaps in Slytherin,_  
_You'll make your real friends,_  
_To achieve their ends._

_"So put me on! Don't be afraid!_  
_And don't get in a flap!_  
_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_  
_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The Hall erupted in applause and I couldnt help but grin. As the applause died down, I stood up a bit straighter, and the Sorting began. Where would I be placed? Of course it was likely that it would be Slytherin, given what family I belong to, but if what I heard was true and it went off of my own traits and not my family, I was at a loss.

Scorpius had always been the more "Slytherin" of us two. He was as ambitious as the day is long (wanted to be an auror), he was about as sneaky as he was ambitious, and he even _looked_ the part, with his signature smirk and "I-don't-care-about-how-I-look" hairstyle.

I had never really been like that. I wanted to be a healer, of course, I always had, but I didnt really think much on it, being that I wasnt in school yet. I wasnt particularly sneaky, though I wasnt completely an open book, I liked to think. I always had my pin-straight hair in a French braid, not a hair out of place, and I didnt smirk near as much as I smiled.

I was pulled out of my reverie by my name being called. "Cassiopeia Malfoy!" called Professor Longbottom.

I straightened up and walked forward resolutely, trying not to look around me or feel the eyes boring into my back. I sat on the stool and squeezed my eyes shut as the Hat was sat on my head and over my eyes.

_"Ah, another Malfoy, are you?"_ I heard the Hat, well, not speak, but it almost sounded like he was _thinking_ inside _my_ head. _"I Sorted your brother, as well. He wasn't very hard to place; very much like your parents. But you... You are very unlike any that share your blood, aren't you? Not ambitious enough for Slytherin... Not quite suited for Hufflepuff, either... Your brains aren't the kind that would put you in Ravenclaw... so that only leaves..._

_"GRYPHINDOR!"_

I can't tell you that I was very surprised. What the Hat said was completely correct, and I knew it. And to be perfectly honest, I can't tell you that I was disappointed at the Sorting choice, either.

I hid my half-smile as I walked to my new table. Unlike the other kid's tables when they had been Sorted, most of the table was silent. In fact, the only few people that were clapping (besides a few polite claps from random kids) were a few of the Potter-Weasleys from varying tables, only recognizable by their bright red locks of hair.

I could feel eyes boring into my back. I was a Malfoy! And I had been Sorted into Gryffindor! To everyone else, that must have seemed like an abomination. But I did my best to ignore them. After all, what the heck did their opinion matter for?

I took my seat at the Gryffindor table, not far away from the girl whom my brother had previously confirmed was Rose Weasley and her cousins. I kept my head down for a while, staring at my fingers, which sat crossed on the table, while the N's and O's went by, only looking up long enough to see Lily be sorted into Gryffindor, at which point she sat next to me and we both stayed pretty silent until the Sorting hit the W's.

"Weasley, Hugo!" said Proffessor Longbottom.

Hugo went up and it took approximately three seconds for the Hat to scream out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Weasley, Lucy!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Weasley, Roxanne!"

It took a moment for the Hat to decide, and it was only after Roxanne had quite loudly exclaimed, "NO!" and given the Hat - which sat atop her head, making it a rather funny sight - a very mean glare that it finally screamed out "GRYFFINDOR!" and she smiled, heading to the table.

I clapped loudly for each of them, and it wasn't long before it was time for the feast to start. Personally, I was a bit more than nervous with my new House. Luckily, however, Lily and the others kept my mind off of everything throughout the entirety of the opening speech and the feast, and it wasn't until we got to the common room that it was brought to my attention again.

I followed the prefects to my Common Room, and Hugo, Lucy, Lily, Roxanne, and I all sat down on the couches.

"So," said Lucy. "You never did tell us, Roxanne. What were you yelling at the Hat for at your Sorting?"

Roxanne blushed. "The stupid thing was considering putting me in Ravenclaw! I'm not that pretentious, am I?"

We all laughed at her. "No, Roxy," said Lily. "But you do have to see where it was going with that. You and your mother both have pretty Ravenclaw-ish properties. If you weren't a Weasley and didn't have that temper I would put you in Ravenclaw too."

Suddenly three boys walked up to us, sneers on their faces, and the one in the middle began to speak.

"Look at that," he said, looking to his crony on the right. "It's the littlest Slytherin. Aren't you in the wrong house?" He turned to me as he finished.

I glared at him. "No," I said. "The Sorting Hat put me here, so I'm exactly where I need to be at the moment."

He sneered at me. "I don't think so," he said. "Your parents were Death Eaters, which makes you one too, and everyone knows that Death Eaters belong in Slytherin."

"That's not true!" yelled Lily from next to me. "Her parents might have been Death Eaters, but my dad told me that her dad only did it because his father told him to, and Cassie's grandmother saved my dad's life during the Battle of Hogwarts!"

"Oh yes," said one of the first boy's cronies. "And just because of that, we should all bow down to her? Just because you're related to Harry Potter doesn't mean that you're all royalty, Weasley."

The other two laughed, and Lily and I clenched our fists. Roxanne, however, wasn't as quiet with her opinions.

"How dare you!" she yelled, calling to us the attention of the whole room. "My uncle is the bravest man in the whole world, and without him you wouldn't even have been born! Need I remind you, Dean Finnigan, that your father is a half-blood? Voldemort would have killed him if my uncle hadn't killed Voldemort first!"

'Dean' looked taken aback. "How dare you!" he yelled. He took a step toward her, drawing his wand. "I'll teach you to talk to me that way!"

But before he could do anything else, he was suddenly picked up by the collar of his shirt and pushed against the nearest wall, a wand stuck at his throat. In front of him stood Fred Weasley, Roxanne's brother, seething mad.

"What's that?" he asked. "What were you about to do to my sister!?"

The other boy, who was quite a bit shorter and smaller than Fred, seemed to cower a bit. "The little brat deserved it!" he said. "She's fraternizing with a Malfoy! And then had the cheek to get mad at me for pointing it out!"

"I don't care what your reasoning was!" Fred said. "You threatened a bunch of first years, my little sister included!"

It was then that James, Albus and Lily's older brother, walked over. "Calm down Fred," he said, though he glared at Dean. "He's not worth it." There was ice in his voice that even made me wince a little.

Fred let go of Dean's collar slowly, and with one more glare walked toward us again. "You guys okay?" he asked when he got back to us.

"Yeah," said Roxanne, grinning up at her big brother. She hugged him close. "Thanks Freddy."

He smiled at her. "You're welcome, Georgia." Beside me, I saw Lily roll her eyes good-naturedly, whilst I myself was confused.

"Georgia?" I asked.

Roxanne turned around. "It's my middle name," she said. "But don't call me by it. He only gets to because he has since I was born and because it's after my dad's name and his is after my uncle's, and we like to think that we're like them sometimes. Don't call him Freddy, either."

Fred turned toward me. "So I suppose that you would be Cassiopeia, right? Albus talks about you, and so does Scorpius when he's over during the Easter holidays."

I glared. "It's Cassie if you want to keep all of your fingers."

He grinned lopsidedly at me. "Okay, I won't call you by your first name, but I refuse to call you Cassie. Cass fits you much better."

I grinned sadistically. "Okay," I said. "But when you wake up tomorrow morning with four fingers on your left hand, just know that I had nothing to do with it."

He grinned back. "I'll take my chances, Cass."

The rest of the night was spent laughing and joking with everyone, and I met Rose, Hugo's sister, as well as conversed with James and Fred, who promised that I would meet the rest of the family as well as a couple others in the morning at breakfast. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good night when I went to bed around ten o'clock, and I couldn't wait for class to start in the morning.


	3. Cassie and The Plan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank Longbottom II and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that you have not previously been introduced to. I also do not own the 39 Clues branches (Tomas, Lucian, Ekaterina, and Janus).**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View**

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of people padding around the room. Well, I half woke up. You see, it is easy to wake me up halfway, but it's near impossible to wake me up fully. My eyes still closed, I listened subconsciously to someone opening up the curtains around my bed.

"Wake up, Cassie!" I heard Lily say. A moment later I felt shaking in my arm, and it toke me up slightly more but not enough to make me move. Then, before I could even think, suddenly I sat bolt upright as I became soaking wet.

"Oh my Merlin!" I yelled. From around the room I heard snickers, and I looked to see Roxanne, Lucy, and Lily standing there laughing. "You twats," I said. I looked out our window to see that the sun was up but couldn't have been for more than an hour. Therefor, it was probably around seven in the morning.

"Ugh!" I groaned. The girls laughed harder.

"Come on," said Roxanne. "We have to get to breakfast. Classes start in an hour."

I rolled my eyes but stood up, walked over to my closet, and grabbed my school uniform, which included a white blouse, a black vest with the Gryffindor crest, a red-and-gold striped tie, and a black skirt with knee-length white socks and black Mary-Jane's'. I decided to leave my hair down.

When all of us were ready, we went downstairs to the Common Room to find that all of the others were waiting for us. "Hey, Cass!" said Fred and James when I walked down the steps.

I glared at them both. "Seriously," I said. "Do you guys want to wake up with one less finger on each hand tomorrow?"

They just grinned at me, and I rolled my eyes.

"Okay," said Roxanne. "Quit being mean to my friend, Fred. Let's get to breakfast, shall we?"

My eyes widened. "And then I can see Scorpius!" I said. "I completely forgot."

Everyone laughed at my excitement and we went downstairs and into the Great Hall. Walking in, I found my brother quickly as he turned around in his seat at the Slytherin table and grinned at me, waving. I ran over to him.

As I ran, he stood up and right when I reached him he picked me up and spun me around in the air. I giggled as he put me down. "Hey Cassie-star," he said. I grinned at his use of my childhood nickname.

"Hey Scorp," I said. "Can you believe I got put in Gryffindor?"

He shrugged. "Actually I can," he said, grinning. "So how is it?"

"It's great!" I said. "I love it so much."

Suddenly a voice from behind Scorpius spoke up. "Really?" it said. "I would have sorted you Hufflepuff, not Gryfffindor."

I glared as Albus walked over, his usual smirk in place.

"Sod off, Potter," I said.

Albus sneered at me. "I don't think so."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Can you two give it a rest for five minutes?"

"No," we said in unison.

We glared at each other again.

We kept glaring, neither of us wanting to be the first to look away, for stubbornness sake. His bright green eyes had flecks of hazel near the center, I noticed for the first time. For a moment, I felt my glare slipping off my face and I had to quickly put it back before he noticed.

Then, suddenly, his face took on a nonchalant look. "Whatever," he said. "Bye, little Cassie." And with that he walked out of the Great Hall.

Scorpius sighed. "The two of you have really got to quit being like that to each other."

"I doubt that'll happen," I said. "Anyway, I have to go get some milk or something before it's time to go. I'll see you later, Scorp."

I walked toward the table and, as I'd thought, I'd barely finished pouring my glass of milk before the pitcher disappeared. Quickly I finished my glass before walking out of the Great Hall, going on to class.

* * *

My first class was Charms, which I immediately took a liking to. The teacher, who had apparently only taken over the position from Professor Flitwick last year, was named Ekaterina Tomas, and she praised me when I was able to make the feather float on the first try, saying that the last time she had heard of such a thing was when Lily's aunt Hermione did so. Apparently they had been classmates. She was also the Ravenclaw Head of House.

The second class was Transfiguration with Professor Janus Lucian. She was kind of old; probably in her seventies or so, around the age of my granddad Greengrass. She was pretty strict, but all in all she was sweet to me, being that I was the only one there that was able to transfigure my quill into an apple on the first five goes, though I couldn't get it the first time.

The third class was Defense. The teacher, Zacharias Smith, was pretty strict, and the second that we all came into the classroom he told us that he wouldn't be allowing any tom-foolery or any sort of misbehavior in his class. Both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, whom we had the class with, lost bunches of points for things as trivial as not making the spell completely correct the first time it was attempted. I felt bad for the Hufflepuffs, who had him as their Head of House.

The fourth class of the day was Potions with Blaise Zabini. He was actually really nice, and I couldn't help but take a liking to him. He gave both the Gryffindors and Slytherins, who shared the class with us, points and he even took some away from the latter when they started to tease me about my house, which turned out to be unexpected because he was their Head of House.

The last class of the day was had with the Gryffindor Head of House, Professor Longbottom, the man that organized the Sorting. The class was overall a good one, though I will say Herbology will never be a great skill of mine.

Finally it was time for dinner, and I nearly collapsed on the bench when I finally got there. As I did so, I heard James laugh from beside me. "Hard first day?"

"So violent!" said Fred from next to him. "You've spent too much time around m sister."

Suddenly James grinned. "Oh," he said. "I forgot. I was supposed to have you meet two of our friends today; I'll go get them."

He got up and walked to the Ravenclaw table before I could say anything. "Oh!" squealed Roxy from next to me. "I bet he's going to get Lorcan and Lysander! They're in Al's year, but they're really big pranksters so they get along well with James and Fred."

I nod and watch as I see James coming back with a set of very-similar-looking boys. The only difference I could see was that one had curly dark brown hair and the other had straight light brown hair. Both had very light blue eyes, though, and were very tall and lanky. I couldn't help but think they were slightly handsome.

The boys all came over and James's grin never wavered as he introduced the twins. Note to self- light brown = Lorcan and dark brown hair = Lysander.

"Why hello," they said at the same time. I couldn't help but giggle.

"Hi," I said. "My name's Cassie."

"Cool name," said Lorcan. He turned to Roxy. "I take it you're friends with Georgia here."

Roxy blushed. "I told you not to call me that!" she said. "The only reason Fred is allowed is because he's my brother."

He grinned wider. "But Georgia, you wouldn't kill me. You loooove me, remember?"

She blushed even brighter at this and looked down for a moment before looking back up not even a second later and beginning to speak again. My eyes widened. Does she like Lorcan?

I looked to Fred. He didn't even seem as though he noticed.

Deciding to leave it alone, I turned back to the table, satisfied that everyone was talking to someone else.

Unfortunately, it was at that very moment that a shadow loomed over me and I turned back around, where a familiar pair of green eyes looked down at me.

"Hey," said Albus.

I glared at him, and he glowered back. "What do you want?"

He turned slightly, and I saw that my brother was there as well. They exchanged a couple of looks before Albus turned back toward me and mumbled something unintelligible.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I apologize!" Albus exclaimed, glowering. "I'm sorry for how I treated you this morning."

He turned toward my brother, who nodded and smiled.

I glowered at him. "Thanks," I said. "But being that it was probably my brother that set you up to this, I have to say apology not accepted."

Albus shrugged and began walking away, but Scorpius pulled him back. "You two have got to start getting along!" he exclaimed.

I scoffed. "Fat chance."

Albus nodded his agreement and Scorpius glared at us.

I grinned sarcastically. "Well if that's all you wanted, then I'll be on my way!"

And with that I stood up, grabbed my bag, and walked

And with that I stood up, grabbed my bag, and walked out of the Great Hall and toward my dorm.

The dormitories were different than what they were in the pictures Lily had shown me the night before, taken by her parents when they were in school. For instance, instead of hardwood floors they had beige carpeted floors. Instead of the beds being lined up around the circular room around the door, they were lined up facing the door and they had been updated from their outdated four-poster design, and were no longer red.

The beds had modern bedframes, with curtains that you could pull around the bed still, but they hung from the ceiling. Each bed and it's makings were colored white until the first night of school, when the student could choose what color they wanted it to be. The dorm walls were still red of course, but according to Fred and James the school had made the beds and room the way it was to show that the Houses were no longer biased, so they had made sure that not every single thing was red in Gryffindor. The Common Room was the same as in Lily's photos, though. It seemed that the Common Room would never change.

On the wall next to the bed on the far right, there was a door that led to a bathroom that all of us would share. It had a shower, a bath tub, a toilet, and a sink, and it had beautiful tiling and granite counters. I had plans to spend the better part of my time before bed that day in there.

When I came into the room, I went to the bed right next to the one next to the bathroom, which was colored different shades of purple, with lavender pillows and sheets and with a dark purple comforter. That was mine, obviously.

In order from left to right, the far left bed was Roxanne's and had a green blue theme. the comforter was white, with green-blue pillows that had white fleur-de-lies' on them. The curtains were the same color blue with a white fleur-de-liese on each side.

Next, there was Lily's bed, which had a zebra-print comforter, a pink blanket at the bottom, and three pink pillows (the middle one with a huge diamond sparkling on it) with three black pillows behind those. The curtains were zebra-printed as well.

After that, there was my bed, with Lucy's bed after mine, next to the bathroom since she woke up first. Her bed had a white comforter with black flower prints on it as well as two matching pillows. In front of those were one soft green throw pillow, one black throw pillow, and a soft green blanket at the bottom of the bed. The curtains were white.

I laid down on my bed with my knees hanging off, kicking my feet absent-mindedly as I thought about what had happened and muttered curses under my breath. Albus Potter needed to pay for all the heck he had put me through these past couple of years, and now that I was in Hogwarts I had the prime opportunity to make sure he did so.

I bounced ideas through my head, but none of them worked. Suddenly, I sat straight up as inspiration struck and I smirked. This would be amazing. All I needed was to tell the girls of my plan, and then I would put it into action when classes started the next day. It was perfect.


	4. Cassie and The Christmas Confessions

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank and Alice Longbottom II, Cassie Malfoy, and any other characters that you have not previously been introduced to. I also do not own the 39 Clues branches (Tomas, Lucian, Ekaterina, and Janus).**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View****  
**The next day was the worst in Albus Potter's life. The girls and I made sure of that.

When he walked into the Great Hall during breakfast, we put a jinx on him that made it so that all day long he would be tripping over air, every few steps. When he sat to eat (at the Slytherin table) we turned his portion of the seat to water, so when he sat her fell on the floor and as soaked. During lunch he found that his pumpkin juice tasted strangely like Hagrid's cookies. And then, finally, we made his hair turn Weasley-red during dinner. That part was Lily's idea, since she said that he always teased her for being a ginger when he wasn't.

Foolishly thinking that it would be a smart idea, I let the other girls go back to the dorm without me, wanting to have a bit more chicken before I left, which is why I found myself, twenty minutes after they left, standing in a deserted corridor with Albus Potter glaring at me from a few feet away.

"What do you want, Potter?" I asked, glaring back as I stood my tallest, trying to seem bigger and more intimidating than what seemed possible.

"I know that today was your idea," he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I feigned innocence.

He sneered. "Don't play dumb with me," he said. "I know very well it was you and my sister and cousins that made my day a living heck today."

I dropped the façade. It obviously wasn't getting me anywhere. "Fine then," I said. "So what? What are you gonna do about it?" I glared as I said this.

He took a small step backward and smiled; making me put my guard up even more than it was previously. "Nothing," he said, leaning back on the wall behind him nonchalantly. "I'm gonna let you get away with it for now." Suddenly he was mad again, and he stepped forward so that his face was inches from mine. "But just know that if you _ever_ turn my own family against me again, you will pay. I just won't do it now because your brother happens to be my best friend."

With that he left and I was forced to walk back to the common room by myself, the hallways now deserted.

* * *

The days at Hogwarts passed quickly after that and before I knew it, it was time for Christmas break. My parents as well as the Potters had given me permission to stay at Lily's over break provided that I come home for Christmas Eve and Christmas so I could do our traditions. Then I would go back to the Potter's again until time to go back to school.

I got onto the train with Lily, Albus, James, and my brother, along with most of the other Weasley/Potters, and then promptly fell asleep on Lily's shoulder when we got to our compartment. We had decided to share it with my brother, Albus, and Rose, who, I was sure, had a crush on Scorpius.

I was in a half-asleep half-awake state when I suddenly heard Albus speak from across the compartment. "It's amazing how sweet she seems when she's sleeping." He snorts. "I guess looks can be deceiving."

"She _is_ sweet," said Lily, who I had shifted on so that my head now rested on her lap as her fingers ran through my hair. "You just refuse to get close enough to her to realize that."

"I agree," I heard my brother say. "You really need to let up on her, Al. She's not all bad. I think she just doesn't like you because you were never as nice to her as you should have been. She hates it when people demean her, and the first time you met her you made her feel like she was just a little kid."

"She was though!" Albus defends. "She still is, in my book."

"She's the same age as me," said Lily. "And you don't treat me like you do her."

"That's different," started Albus, but then Rose cut in.

"How is it different?" she asked. "Personally, I think she's very mature for her age. She's much more mature than you were, anyway. How _is_ Alice, by the way? You haven't talked to her very much since you dated her back in second year. The poor dear thought she was in love with you and you just about broke her heart."

"No I didn't," Albus shot back. "I just didn't like how the relationship was going, so I ended it. How bad is that? I didn't want to make her think that I wanted to date her anymore. I didn't want to lead her on, and so I broke up with her. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Enough," said Lily. "You guys arguing is going to wake her up. As for you, Albus, you need to be nicer to Cassie. Just because we pulled a prank on you doesn't mean that you get to be rude to her forever. I think you more than got your point across."

The compartment went silent after that, and soon after I let the gentle feeling of Lily's hand running through my hair lull me to sleep.

* * *

When we got to the platform again, I found myself with the sight of my brother being engulfed by a crowd of redheads, a huge smile on his face.

I stood back a bit, hoping that they would overlook me, but unfortunately they don't and soon one redhead woman, probably in her sixties, came over to me. "Hello," she said. "My name is Nana Molly. You can call me Nana, Molly, or Nana Molly like the kids if you want."

"What does my brother call you?" I asked.

She smiled. "He calls me Nana Molly officially, but usually he shortens it to Nana," she said.

I couldn't help but smile back. She was a lot more welcoming than Grandma Greengrass, and probably as nice as Grandma Cissa was. "Nana Molly it is then," I said, and if possible her smile got bigger.

"Now," she said. "You look a bit peaky. We should get you home for some dinner."

My grin stayed on my face for the entire trip to the "Burrow," as the Wotters (Weasley/Potters) called it. The Burrow was a very tall building which seemed like it was about to topple over at any moment. It was leaning slightly to the side and I couldn't help but wonder how sturdy it was.

"It's okay," I heard my brother say from beside me in a whisper. "It's held up by magic; it's never toppled over while I've been here."

I nodded slightly and followed him inside.

When I got there, I found that the smell of chicken filled the house and my mouth instantly watered. It smelled amazing.

My contentment must have shown on my face, because suddenly James came up. "Welcome to Nana Molly's cooking," he said. "It's the best I've eaten yet."

I grinned, something I seemed to do often around the Wotters. "I can tell," I said. Then I looked toward the stairs, which were right in front of us. "So, where am I bunking?"

"With Lily, Roxanne, and Lucy," he answered. "I'll show you."

He walked with me up the stairs as we talked. "So, what's with the bad blood between you and my brother?"

I frowned. "When I first met him he refused to treat me like an equal, and then he called me "Little Cass," which he knows I hate. So basically, he is a prat to me, so I'm a prat back."

James looked thoughtful. "You know," he said. "He isn't like that to anyone but you. It's actually kind of funny."

"Gee," I grumbled. "Aren't I just the lucky one?"

He didn't seem to have a response to that, and I found us walking in silence up the stairs until we got to a door some three stories up. "This is it," he said. He smiled a little as he bent down to give me a hug. "I really am glad Lily met you," he said, and I couldn't help but smile back, even after he had gone back downstairs and I had gone into the room, which currently occupied all three other girls.

"Hey Cassie," said Lily as I walked in. "What took you so long?"

"I was just talking to James," I said as I went over to the bed Lily was sitting on. She and I would be sharing, according to her.

"Oh?" asked Lucy, an eyebrow rising. "So our Cassie has a crush on James, does she?"

I looked at her like she was stupid, which was what she was acting like. "No," I said, disgusted. "I don't have a crush on anyone."

"Yeah Luce," said Roxy. "We all know it's Albus she has a crush on."

"Now I don't!" I said. "I don't have a crush on anyone, let along Mister Prat-Of-The-Century!"

"Who's talking about me?"

I turned to see none other than the aforementioned Prat-Of-The-Century leaning on the doorway, a smirk on his face. I swear I wanted to scream.

"Oh, nothing," Roxy was saying. "Just the fact that Ca–"

I put my hand over her mouth before she could say anything else. "Nothing, prat," I said. "Now get out."

His smirk turned into a sneer and he stepped forward a bit. "I don't think I will," he sneered. "In fact, this is _my_ family's house, so I think I'm going to stay until dinner."

I saw red. "I want to change," I said. "So either get out or see something for which Scorpius will probably kill you."

"Go ahead," he said. "I don't think you will."

Thanking God that I had worn an undershirt that day, I went over to my bag, pulled out my PJs, and then pulled up my sweater to reveal my button-up over shirt, then pulled that up to reveal my dark blue undershirt. My heart beat fast as my fingers reached for the hem of my undershirt and I started panicking. Was he actually gonna make me do this?

But then suddenly his eyes widened and he started waving his hands. "Alright!" he said, obviously annoyed. "Fine, I'll get out. But don't think I won't be back, _Little Cass._"

I couldn't help but smirk as he left. "Girl!" hooted Lily as the door shut. "I can't believe you actually did that! I thought you were gonna actually finish. Heck, his face while you were doing that was priceless!"

My smirk got wider. "Well," I said. "He shouldn't have messed with me."

I took off the undershirt and put on my pajamas as I talked to the girls, and they did the same. "SO what do you think will happen at dinner?" I asked absentmindedly.

"I dunno," said Roxy. "I mean, it's just a little thing. Grandma cooked a chicken, and it's probably her special recipe, so we'll be in for a treat. Also, we're supposed to have mashed potatoes and corn."

I nodded, smiling at the mental image. "Alright then," I said. "You think it's done yet?"

Suddenly there was a call from downstairs. "DINNER'S READY!"

The girls and I giggled at that before leaving the room and going toward the kitchen, which was all the way at the bottom floor. By the time we got there, almost everyone else was already there and we had to scramble to find seats.

Our plates were given to us one at a time and we had to wait for nearly fifteen minutes before it was time to eat. "Merlin, Nana!" I said. The name rolled off my tongue easily. "This is amazing!"

I got laughs from all over the table and we fell into an easy conversation. By the time dinner was over, I had decided to sit outside for a few moments, and I had told Ginny that. After being given permission, I walked outside and stepped onto the porch.

I had barely been there three minutes before suddenly the door opened again and out stepped Albus Potter.

"Potter," I said curtly in greeting as he walked over, leaning on the balcony next to me, which I had previously been leaning on to look at the stars.

He sighed. "Listen," he said. "I'm sorry that I've been a jerk to you. And before you ask, no, your brother didn't ask me to apologize this time. Will you hear me out?"

I nodded slightly, turning back to the sky as I listened.

"I was a prat to you because I was a prejudiced jerk," he started. "And I thought that you would be a stuck-up snob, being the pureblood reputation, which was really stupid since I had already met your brother and he was nothing like that.

"See, after that, you just showed that you had so much spunk, and I figured that if you could fight, then I wasn't going to let someone younger than me win, so I just continued to be rude. But then my sister became your friend and I got jealous.

"See, Lily and I have never been all that close. She's closer to James. So when you got Sorted into her house and became her friend, I got jealous, but then she told me off on the train earlier today and I realized that I was being stupid. I came to apologize to you earlier, upstairs, but then you got defensive, so I got mad and felt stupid so I decided not to apologize.

"But now I feel bad about that, so I wanna apologize. I'm sorry for being a prat, and maybe we can start over?"

I turned to him, my eyes wide. He wanted to start over? "O-Okay," I said. "Um, I'm sorry for being a jerk to you too. Forgive me?"

He smiled and nodded. "Okay then," he said. "I have to get back inside now. Talk to you later then?"

I nodded, and he started walking away. As I looked up at the stars, I realized something.

Slytherins were supposed to be mean, course. But Albus was only partially that. I smiled and giggled softly.

Albus Potter was an Almost-Slytherin.

**A/N: No, the story is not over. Yet.**


	5. Cassie and The Room of Requirement

**A/N: Sorry guys, but for the next few days I can't update because I'll be at my cousin's house for a little bit. I should be able to post again in about a week and a half if writer's block doesn't show up though. Keep your fingers crossed!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank and Alice Longbottom II, Cassie Malfoy, and any other characters that you have not previously been introduced to. I also do not own the 39 Clues branches (Tomas, Lucian, Ekaterina, and Janus).**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**We went back to school about two weeks later, and I think that that was the only time up till then that I had been on the Hogwarts Express and not had a problem with Albus Severus Potter. That being said, however, he and I were not on exceptional terms still. I suspected that with our past it would probably be a while before we were completely comfortable.

When we got back to Hogwarts, teachers seemed to ram their subjects into us with the force of a charging bull. Homework was twice as long and hard, lessons in themselves were tiring, and I found it dang near impossible to balance enough time for talking with my brother and friends through all of the work I had to do for school.

With my exams coming up in April, I had to devote much of my time to studying, and it was rare when I did have a spare moment of peace. One such occasion was one that I would most definitely not be forgetting in the next few years.

I was in the Gryffindor Common Room studying with Roxanne, Lily, Hugo, and Lucy when suddenly James and Fred popped up. "Come on you lot," said Fred. "Even Rose has taken a break from studying. Why don't you lot come to the kitchens with us and have a bit of cake?"

I bit my lip a bit. "But what if us not studying means we don't get to good grades?" I asked.

James grinned. "What would you say if I said that I could tell you what you needed to practice doing for the grades and you only have to practice that stuff?"

"I would say you were my hero," I said.

"And I would say that that's against the rules," said Roxanne. Then she smirked. "But then, if we go down to the kitchen, which is also technically against the rules, then you can tell us and we won't get caught, will we?"

James and Fred grinned. "Yep," they said at once.

A couple of minutes later we were getting ready to leave when Rose and Dominique Weasley came downstairs. "Are you lot going to the kitchens?" Dominique asked quietly.

I nodded and Rose smiled. "I'm coming too," she said. Dominique nodded.

We all nodded and went downstairs. I talked to Rose as I did; she was really a very nice person, though because of the age difference she wasn't very close to me. However, I did enjoy her company and it wasn't until we passed the library that our conversation was interrupted.

"Hey!" said Molly, another Weasley, as she, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, and Louis Weasley came out. She looked at me with a look that I would expect to see when my mother was scolding me. "Kitchens?"

I nodded meekly, afraid she would tell, but then she too smiled and suddenly we had four new companions. With all of those people, it was a bit hard to find a way around any teachers and not get caught, but eventually we made it downstairs, and so busy was I trying to talk to Rose that I bumped into someone.

I fell to the floor and looked up quickly, afraid we had been caught, only to see the smiling face of my big brother. "Scorp!" I said happily, jumping up and hugging him. I hadn't seen him in a while, what with my school schedule. I looked next to him. "Albus!"

Albus grinned and looked at his brother. "Kitchens?" he asked. I wondered how many time James went to the kitchen if almost everyone knew right off the bat where we were going. James nodded.

"We wanna come too," said the boys together.

I nodded my approval and so did the others, and then we all set out again. Soon, we were finally at the painting for the kitchen. Louis, the tallest, reached and tickled the pear and the portrait swung open with a giggle. Two by two, we stepped into the room until we were all inside and James instantly went to the back, where a house elf with big, green eyes stood wearing a light blue shirt that looked like it was the right size for a one-year-old. Because of the size, it actually fit the elf, and I wondered if this was done on purpose or just because it was a coincidence.

"Master James!" said the elf. "Nanny has missed you! Where have you been?"

"Sorry I haven't been down in a while, Nanny," said James, chuckling. "I've been a bit busy." He gestured toward Roxy, Lucy, Hugo, Lily, and I. "These are my sibling, cousins, and - remember Scorpius? - his sister. They're all in first year and they're about to take their tests next month, so I thought that having a bit of hot chocolate would cheer them up a bit."

Nanny smiled. "Of course," she said. "Give me on minute." With that she set about bustling around the kitchen, making our chocolate.

"How have you been lately, Nanny?" asked Rose as she did so. "I mean, have you been getting breaks and such?"

Nanny looked at Rose with a stern expression as she brought out the cups of hot chocolate. "Honestly Miss Rose," she said. "We house elves are just fine. We've been getting breaks, yes, but even if we didn't, we would be just fine. You really ought to stop worrying about us."

"But you know that I worry," said Rose. "And my mum hasn't spent the last few years trying to get rights for you guys for no reason, has she?"

"No," said Nanny. "But still, some of us don't want to have anything done any special way. Nanny is grateful to Miss Granger for her help, but Nanny doesn't want to be unneeded. Nanny wants to be able to work, since the conditions are better now thanks to your mum."

Rose looked down at the floor. "Yes, Nanny," she said.

Nanny smiled at her as she handed her the hot chocolate. "Don't feel bad, Miss Rose," she said. "Nanny really is grateful, but Nanny is just fine how she is."

Scorpius walked over to Rose and put his arm around her shoulders, making her blush and making me raise an eyebrow. It seemed that my brother returned Rose's rather obvious crush. "It's alright Rosie," he said. "It's just that not all house elves want to be treated like us. Isn't that right, Nanny?"

Nanny smiled at my brother. "Exactly," she said. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

That conversation fizzled out quickly, and thirty minutes later we had finished our chocolate and were saying goodbye to Nanny and the other house elves. "Nanny hopes to see you lot soon," the little elf said as they left. James promised that she would, and with that they all left again. "So," said Scorpius. "Are we splitting up again?"

"No," said James, grinning. "It's only ten o' clock! Curfew's only just passed. I vote we go to the Room of Requirement for a little, don't you lot agree?"

The answer was nearly unanimous, with only Rose, Louis, and I objecting, but Rose was easily swayed by my brother, which made me decide that if Rose of all people had no problem with it then maybe it wasn't so terrible, and Louis didn't want to be left out so he decided to come as well.

* * *

The Room was located in the seventh floor corridor, and since we were at the very bottom of the castle, we had to sneak around very quietly in order to not be caught, and Filch still almost found us out once in the fifth floor corridor. When we finally made it to the room, James was the one to pace in front of the door, whispering, "We need a place to have fun."

A pair of doors appeared and we walked inside. The room inside was breathtaking. The floors were dark hardwood, and the walls were a simple beige color. There were two couches that faced each other, separated by a dark coffee table with a wizards chess set in front of it. There was a roaring fire in the fire place that faced the couches and table, and other than that there were no lights in the room save for a couple of lamps near the door. There were multiple types of food on the left side of the room sitting on a table. On the right side of the room there were seven bunk beds all in a row, nicely furnished, with two wardrobes, one on the right side of the line of beds labeled with a capitol cursive G, and one on the left side labeled with a capitol cursive B. Not too far away from the fire place, probably a meter or two, was a room labeled 'Bathroom.' It was obvious that the room had been equipped for an overnight stay.

"It looks like we're staying the night," said James. "Anyone wanna guess what's in the wardrobes?"

"Probably extra outfits," I volunteered. "And I'd be willing to bet that there's pajamas in there, as well as school uniforms, exactly our size."

"Me too," said Lucy.

"Anyway," said Albus. "Are we just going to sit around here, or are we gonna have fun?"

"I vote for the latter," said Fred. Then he grinned. "Anyone who thinks they can beat me at Wizard's chess?"

And so the next hour went. At first Fred and Albus played, with the rest of us watching, and Fred won. Then Scorpius played and he won, and we decided that I would play him. By that point the others had started a game of Truth or Dare across the room.

I took my first move, moving my king-side knight first, as usual. Scorpius moved one of his pawns first. My eyes raked the board as I debated my next move. Eventually I decided to move one of my pawns as well, giving my queen-side bishop the room to move. Our game went on like that for a while, and soon Scorpius had gained the upper hand, beating me dramatically.

Finally he had me backed into a corner, with my king-side castle still in it's corner, two pawns sitting two spaces in front of it, my king in the space between the castle and the pawns, and my bishop protecting them all. On the other side of the board, Scorpius still had most of his pieces, but his king was backed into a corner on the opposite end of mine, his castle sitting one square in front of it, and a couple of his other pieces guarding it. There was only one space that there was a possibility of getting his king through.

Desperate, I moved my last castle to the second space on the opposite side of the board, thinking that if I could just make him move his king out of the corner then maybe I could take it with the castle. Slowly but surely, he took moth of my last pawns and I had finally moved my bishop so that it was directly across from his king. If I slid it across, his king would be dead. I had forgotten about my castle, so I said "Check," before looking back at the board and seeing it. "No," I said excitedly. "Check _mate_!" I had backed him so that if he moved his king, my castle could take him, and if he didn't, my bishop would.

He gaped at me. "But I was winning!" he said. "How did you do that?"

I smirked. "You were just thinking of trying to kill my pieces," I said. "And that almost made you win. But see, wizards chess is a game of strategy. And that, dear brother, is how I beat you."

"James!" my brother called. James looked up from where he had been laughing, most likely at another person's expense. "Come see how my kid sister managed to beat me."

James came over, pausing his own game, and hooted when he saw the board. "Bloody hell," he said. "How did you manage that?"

I just smirked up at him, making him grin. "That was great, Cassie," he said.

I mock bowed. "Thank you," I said. "I like to think so. And just think, that was a complete accident. I hadn't though about my castle. I'd actually forgotten about it."

James whistled. "Dang," he said. "Remind me to have you play my Uncle Ron. I bet you and him would be fun to watch."

Not too long past that Scorpius and I let some others play, and the game of Truth or Dare was given up. Us girls got dressed in the bathroom first, getting into almost identical sets of black shorts and grey tank tops. The boys went in next and came out in black pajama pants and grey tee shirts, which over half of them forwent anyway. After that, most of us went to bed. Albus, James, Fred, Lily, Scorpius, and I were the only ones still awake and we were all whispering stories about our families the rest of the night. I fell asleep around two in the morning, thankful that it was Saturday and I had nothing to do the next day.

* * *

Our group's Room of Requirement meetings happened every so often after that, leading up to a couple of months later when I took my exams, thankful to have them over with. Not too long after that, I got on the Hogwarts Express one more time, this time not to return for three months, and promising Lily that I would come see her over the summer. I just hoped that our summer would be as good as our year was.


	6. Cassie and The Summer After First Year

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank and Alice Longbottom II, Cassie Malfoy, and any other characters that you have not previously been introduced to. I also do not own the 39 Clues branches (Tomas, Lucian, Ekaterina, and Janus). I own the recipe for the seasonings to use in the spaghetti, however, and they actually work quite nicely.**

**Summer - Age Twelve  
Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**The great part about my birthday is that it is on June fifteenth, right after we get out of school. I turned twelve right before Lily did, being that he birthday was on June twenty-second, Roxanne's was on July sixth, Hugo's on July thirteenth, and finally Lucy's on July twenty-seventh. On each of their birthdays I sent them a gift and a letter, though to be fair that wasn't any difference since I sent them each one every week anyway.

I wasn't allowed to go to the Potter house until August twentieth due to the fact that my mother didn't want me to spend my entire summer at someone else's house, having decided that she missed me and my brother very much since we were both at school. I noticed that my dear brother took care to owl Albus once a week, as I did with my friends, and found it funny that he would completely freak out if he forgot to owl Rose at least once a day. For this I teased him mercilessly.

Over the summer I found that Scorpius was not the only one to be infatuated with a Weasley, nor was he the only one that had a Weasley infatuated with him. Apparently, sometime during the summer Lily found herself growing close to her aunt Fleur's sister's son, who had come to visit from France. According to her, he was very sweet, and in one of Roxanne's letters I was informed that, while they were of course oblivious to the fact themselves, the boy fancied her as well.

Also, just from Lucy's letters alone I could tell that she had become completely and utterly infatuated with Lysander Scamander, let alone Roxanne and Lily's. Lucy, however, in contrast with Lily and Rose, knew very well that she had a crush on Lysander and had simply chosen to ignore it, being that he had just turned fifteen and she was only twelve. I agreed wholeheartedly with her decision, explaining to her that maybe sometime in her late years of school or after they could be together, were that to be their decision. She had reminded me that she didn't even know if he liked her back. I had snorted as I read that.

By the time that August twentieth came, I was very excited to make the trip to the Potter's house, which I still had yet to see as I had spent Christmas at the Burrow. Scorpius and I had gone by floo powder and I was completely taken aback as I stepped out of the fireplace. The living room - just the living room, mind you - was huge.

The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of the fireplace was that it was an extremely quaint, and not at all what I had expected from a very raucous and loud family such as the Potters. The walls were a functional light brown/beige color, with dark brown crown moldings. In front of the wall in front of the fireplace was a beautiful brown couch with blue throw pillows. Said wall stopped at a corner about a meter from the end of the couch, and from where I was it looked as though the corner stood next to a set of stairs.

The other side of the couch had walls that went on for a few meters before cornering off. There was a small bar with a space in the wall so that I could see into the kitchen – or more likely so that parents could see into the living room from the kitchen, and then ten meters in front of that there was a pair of French doors, frosted over. I wasn't sure if it led to a dining room or the kitchen, but I was guessing the former being that it was such a big space between where I could see the kitchen and the doors.

The entire wall that the fireplace sat on was mostly windows, giving it an open floor plan, and the natural light was beautiful. Before I could further explore, however, I heard a voice from the kitchen. "Cassie? Scorp?" I heard what I recognized as Ginny's voice. "Is that you, sweeties?"

"Yes, Ginny," I said. She had insisted that I call her that when I had met her over Christmas. "Where is everyone?"

"Well," she answered as she came out of the set of French doors. As it swung shut again I caught a glance of the dining room table. "At the moment, Albus is in his room, James has a summer job with Fred at the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley, and Lily is over at Roxanne's house above the shop. She should be back in a minute; she just went to get Roxy so they could both be here when you got here."

"So Albus is the only one here?" I asked. She nodded.

"If you want, you can go see him," she said. "If you go over to the stairs and head up, the second floor has six bedrooms. The first door on the left is Lily's, the second is Albus' room, the third is James's room, and the fourth is mine and Harry's. On the right there are two guest rooms; you can take the one closest to the stairs, or if you prefer you can sleep in Lily's, and then you, Scorp, can take the one farthest from the stairs as always or sleep in Albus' room again."

"Thanks Ginny," Scorp said. "We'll be back down in a little bit then."

Scorpius and I walked up the stairs and I went toward the first door on the right first. Inside, there were four beige walls accented by slightly darker brown carpet. The bed was on the far left side of the room, right in front of a window that had its sill about four inches from the top of the bed. The bed itself was made of dark brown wood and had pretty dark blue comforters and lighter blue pillows.

The room, which had two windows besides the one that was near the bed, was very airy and full of light. So much in fact that I didn't even have a real need to turn on the light as I walked over to the closet, which was on the right side of the room closest to the far wall and yet another window, and put away my things. Scorpius had told me that since he stayed over most summers anyway the room he was currently unpacking in was pretty much unofficially his according to them and that he kept some of his spare things there. According to him, it would be wise to do so myself as well. Next to the bed was a small bedside table which I decided to put my wand and schoolbooks into.

Finally, being done unpacking, I started walking back downstairs only to run into Lily and Roxy on their way up.

"Cassie!" shouted Lily as she took in my form. "Hi!" She threw her arms around me. "Oh my gosh, you're almost an inch taller than me now!"

I laughed at her enthusiasm. "Nice to see you too Lily," I said. "And yes, I am." I turned to Roxy. "Hey Roxy," I said. "How was your summer?"

"Pretty good," she answered. "My dad wants me to try out for the Quidditch team this year. All three Chasers are out since they graduated last year, as well as the Seeker, so he thinks it would be cool if you, Hugo, Lucy, Lily, and I tried out and then hopefully one of us would make the team at least. I told him that we would try but not to get his hopes up."

"Sounds fun," I said. Then I grinned. "And think if three of us all got the Chaser positions; wouldn't that be cool."

"Yeah," said Lily. "Then we would have the Beaters, all three Chasers, and the Seeker as Weasleys."

"Um, Lily," I said, raising an eyebrow.

She just laughed. "Let's face it. By this point, you and Scorpius are both Weasleys. You even got the sweater from Christmas to prove it."

I stood there for a moment, trying to think of something to say to that, but couldn't find one. "Alright then," I said. "I concede. But see, the difference between my brother and I is that one day he's gonna marry Rose. It's obvious."

"It's about as obvious as you and Albus," said Roxy.

I cringed. "And again, I have no idea what makes you think that," I said. "Didn't we have this conversation in December?"

"Yep," said Lily, popping the 'p'. "And to this day, I have to say that it is highly unlikely that you don't have a crush on at least one of my brothers."

"Merlin, guys," I said. "It's been like eight months! I do not like Albus, and I most _certainly_ do not like James! He's like a second brother!"

"So you admit you don't have as much of a problem with Al."

Remind me to hit Lily.

"No," I said. "I don't admit that. I would have a problem with dating either of them, let alone marrying them."

"Uh huh..." Lily hummed. "Let's check back in three years and see what you think then."

"Fine," I said. "And when it's the same answer, I get to laugh and say 'I told you so.'"

"Good for me," said Roxy. "Now let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry."

I couldn't help but giggle a little at that. Roxy was always hungry. I suspected it came with the Weasley genes.

"Okay," I said. "Then let's go talk to Ginny about it and see what we're gonna make, huh?"

We walked downstairs and found that Ginny was already bustling about the kitchen, humming to herself as a pot of water on the stove lightly boiled and another pot was filled with red sauce. Apparently we were having spaghetti.

"Smell's good, mom," said Lily. "Can I try some of the sauce?"

"Sure," Ginny answered. "I think it's missing something though. I put in the Italian seasoning, but because we didn't have any garlic powder I had to use garlic salt instead."

"Let me try," I said. "Maybe I can help?"

She shrugged and got a spoonful of the warm sauce and handed it to me. Taking a bite, I cringed. "Much too much garlic flavor," I said. "Add a couple of shakes of Italian, maybe?"

She did as I asked and had me taste it again. Again I frowned. "Let me see the garlic salt?" I asked. She nodded and handed me the bottle, and I gently held it above the sauce pan. I gently shook just a bit of the seasoning into the pan, dropping it into the pan thrice, with just a pinch of the seasoning going in each time. "The Italian overpowered it completely," I explained. "Now you guys taste."

All three other girls tasted the sauce and Ginny's eyes widened. "That's wonderful," she said. "Where did you learn that?"

"I sometimes help our house elves cook at home," I answered. "Our elf, Hannah, but I call her Hanny, taught me how when I was small. I've always been able to taste something and know just what it needs."

"That is amazing," said Roxy. "You should help Nana Molly cook sometime; you guys would be an amazing pair."

"Thanks," I said. "But I think that her cooking is much better than mine. I'll be lucky if I can ever cook like her. The only things I know how to cook really are the things that require exactly a certain amount of seasonings to make them amazing: hamburgers, spaghetti, baked chicken, things like that."

"That's still better than me," said Lily. "James can cook okay, but Albus and I would probably burn water."

"It's true," said Ginny. "They tried to help make noodles once, but they forgot to add the noodles to the water and it just kept boiling away until there was none left."

I giggled. "That's pretty special," I said.

The others agreed, and we made friendly conversation until a few minutes later, when James and Mister Potter (Harry, as I had been asked to call him) came home and we called Albus and Scorpius to dinner. I couldn't hold back a grin when they complimented 'Ginny' on her sauce before being told I made it.

The rest of the summer went quickly, and before I knew it, it was the day before I would go back to Hogwarts. That night, I stayed up until nearly two in the morning talking to the girls about what our second year would be like. And our best guesses still didn't scratch the surface.


	7. Cassie and The Revelation of Lily Part 1

**A/N: Oh my gosh guys I am so sorry that it took this long to post this, but I have had the most hectic couple of months of my life. Honestly I have no idea what the time zone between chapters will look like from now on, but hopefully it'll not be as long as it took this time. Anyway, I hope you all like the seventh chapter of Cassie! Please review, flame, critique, whatever you want. See ya!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank Longbottom II and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by ****J.K. Rowling.**

**Second Year – Age Twelve**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View**

September first came by faster than I would have thought. Come eleven o' clock that morning, I found myself on the Hogwarts Express, sitting in a compartment with James, Fred, Lily, Roxy, Hugo, and Lucy. About halfway through the trip, however, I decided to go and see my brother before school started.

"I'm gonna go find Scorp," I told Lily. She nodded before turning back to talk to James.

I walked out of the compartment and toward the back of the train, where the Slytherins sat. After about five minutes of searching, I finally found my brother, accompanied by Albus Potter as always.

See, the thing about me and Potter is that we still aren't exactly the best of friends. We don't hate, hate each other anymore, but we definitely don't like each other. It seemed that that moment during Christmas months before was just that; a moment.

"Hey Scorp," I said as I walked into the compartment, "Potter."

Scorp grinned at me and Albus just nodded once in acknowledgement. "How are you, Cassie?" asked my brother.

I rolled my eyes. "No worse than I was two hours ago when we split up," I said. "Where are the other Slytherins?"

See, since starting school Scorpius had made friends with more than one other Slytherin. Before he met Potter he was friends with Desiree Zabini, Vincent Goyle, and Jeanine Parkinson. Well, not really friends, perhaps, but he was friendly with them. He wasn't anywhere near as close to them as to Potter, though.

"They're in a different compartment," said Scorpius with a shrug. "Something about some new first year, I believe."

"Oh," I said. "Well, then why are you two in here alone? Why not find a new compartment with more people in it?"

Scorpius coughed. "Well," he said. "Actually, we're not alone. Our, erm, companions will be here soon."

It took me a moment before I realized what he was talking about. When I did, my mouth fell open. "Eww!" I said. "I did not need to know that."

"That's not what I meant," said Scorpius, smirking. "But close enough. Geez, you would think that I was talking about having sex or something. Just because a guy snogs a fit girl doesn't mean they're gonna shag, Cassie."

"Ew," I said. "Just ew. I'm gonna leave now before I start to throw up at the fact that my brother is talking to me about his non-existent sex life."

My brother and his friend laughed at me as I walked out of the compartment, blushing and wishing I hadn't gone to see him. As I was walking back to the compartment that I was sharing with the Wotters, I accidentally found myself bumping into someone quite a bit taller than me; probably about Scorpius' size.

"Sorry," I said as I looked up at the boy. He was wearing Gryffindor robes and he looked familiar; I thought I had seen him talking to the older Wotters at some point. "Hi," I said. "I don't think we've met. My name is Cassie Malfoy."

"Nice to meet you," the boy said, smiling. I liked how his brown eyes shone when he did that. "My name is Frank Longbottom."

I smiled at him. "I think I've seen you around somewhere," I said, "Do you know the Weasley/Potters?"

"Yeah," said Frank. "My dad's their parent's friend. I've known them since we were in diapers. You're Scorpius' sister, right?"

"Uh-huh," I said. "Why? Does he talk about me? I haven't met many of his friends aside from the Wotters yet."

"No," said Frank, "He doesn't talk about anybody much. Al, though... He's pretty much always talking about you. You wouldn't believe how much. I know that he had you and Scorp over for the summer. Did he annoy you as much as he did me by talking about it?"

"Probably twice as much," I answered, trying to cover up my surprise at learning that Albus talked about me that much. "I will never understand what Scorpius saw in him when you guys were little. Personally, I like Lily better."

"Me too," said Frank with a grin. He winked. "But don't tell him that."

I laughed with him for a moment before we both stopped. There was a comfortable silence before he spoke again. "So," he said, "I take it you're on your way back from talking to your brother and Al then?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I'm on my way back from visiting my brother. The fact that Potter's there is entirely coincidental."

Frank nodded. "Yeah," he said, "I know you and him don't have the greatest track record. That's okay, though. Not many girls like him as a friend. Unfortunately I got lucky and my sister likes him as more than that."

He cringed a bit. "I heard about that," I said, "Is your sister alright, by the way? He wasn't exactly nice about that, according to Rose."

Frank shrugged. "He wasn't mean about it, either, though. I was pretty mad at him for making Ally sad for the first bit, but he really wasn't mean about it and I understand his reasoning. Ally's fine now. Al and I are good, too. I honestly didn't think they would last, anyway."

Frank laughed. "Anyway, let's talk about something other than my baby sister's dating life, shall we?"

I laughed a bit with him. "Sure," I said. "So, where were you on your way to when I bumped into you?"

"I was heading to go see a few of my friends in Ravenclaw," said Frank. "But if you'd like I can take you back to whatever compartment you're going to and then go."

"No," I said, shrugging, "You don't have to do that. I've actually gotta change into my school clothes anyway, and then I can walk myself back."

Frank nodded. "Well it was nice meeting you," he said, "I'll see you around."

I smiled. "You too," I said. "See you."

We walked our separate ways at that and I made my way to an empty compartment to change. After the Sorting, I found myself sitting again with the Wotters, stuffing my face with the amazing food that the houselves seemed to have had patented.

"So has anyone else noticed," said James suddenly, "Or am I just seeing things?"

James and Fred shared a look for a moment; I swear that those two have some secret language that they use to talk using just their eyes. Finally Fred grinned. "No," he said with a wolfish grin. "I noticed too."

"I'm sorry," said Hugo, "But, um, what exactly have you guys noticed?"

"Why, my darling cousin," said James with a smirk, "Fred and I have both noticed that a certain fourth year that we all know and love seems to have found his eyes permanently stuck to Cassie since we got off of the train."

I looked to the other side of the table, toward where they were pointing, and I saw what they were looking at. However, they were wrong. Frank wasn't looking at me; he was looking at the space next to me, where a certain green-eyed redhead that happened to be my best friend sat. His eyes met mine after a moment and I tilted my head slightly toward James in warning, to which Frank's eyes widened and he turned away, much to the glee of James and Fred, who chuckled.

"Hey," said Lily suddenly, "Is that Dean Finnegan down there?"

I looked where she was pointing - to the very end of the table on the other side - and saw what she was talking about - as well as the not-so-subtle change of subject. The boy that had been so rude to me on my first night the year before was sitting over there, seeming in a very bad mood, if his glare at the boy sitting across from him was any indication. They boy he was glaring at was one of the two that were with him that night; but I couldn't find the other one.

"Where's the other one?" I asked. "There were two with him last year."

"Oh," said Lucy, "Well, the one that's still there is Dean's brother Christopher, and the one missing is their friend Caleb Thomas. His dad, Dean Thomas, was Dean and Christopher's dad's best friend, and he moved the family to America for a couple of years this summer. They moved right before school started. Apparently their dad was pretty upset about it."

"Dang," I said, "That sucks." Something hit me. "So," I said, "I never did figure out last year what year they were in; they look a lot older than us."

"They're a year older than Freddy and James," supplied Roxanne. "But Dean can hardly cast a spell without blowing something up and Christopher isn't much better."

"Oh," I said. The conversation fizzled out to something else. Apparently Roxy wanted to try out for the Quidditch team this year and be a Chaser; personally, the idea appealed to me, too. The only problem was that, while mum and dad had given up pureblood _prejudices_, they hadn't given up everything. Dad was perfectly fine with me being in Quidditch, but mum wanted me to be a proper lady. I knew that to be allowed on the team I would have to ask dad to do some real buttering-up of mom.

Eventually the feast ended, like always, and I found myself walking up to the Gryffindor common room with the others, the conversation at the table earlier still on my mind. I pulled Lily aside quietly and quickly, taking her up to the dorm. "Frank likes you," I said quickly when the door had shut. "And you know it."

"What?" Lily tried to play stupid.

"You know what I mean," I said. "He was staring at you today, at the table. And when I saw him at the train earlier he kind of hinted that he liked you. And then you tried to change the subject earlier when James said something. You like him back."

"Yes," said Lily, "Okay? I like Frank. But that doesn't mean anything. James would kill us, let alone what Al would do. And besides, he's two years older than me! He and I have talked about it, at the Christmas party. We both agreed to wait a few years and then if we still had feelings, then and only then would we do something about it."

I frowned. "Fine," I said, "But I swear, this conversation isn't over."

"Bloody right, it's not," said a voice from the door.

In my haste to talk to Lily, I had sat us on the door closest to the bathroom - on the other side of the room from the door. Because of this, I had completely missed the sound of the door opening, and as I turned around, I realized the severity of my mistake as I was met with two pairs of brown eyes.

**A/N: Sorry to bother you again but... Seriously review and tell me who you think came up! I wanna hear what y'all think before I go on. See you soon, guys!**

**-Cara**


	8. Cassie and The Revelation of Lily Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**My eyes were met by those of Roxy, who seemed slightly hurt, and Fred, who seemed more surprised.

"Guys," I said quickly, standing nervously. "H-How much did you hear?"

"Enough," said Roxy. Her eyes seemed to radiate ice and she turned to Lily. "What I want to know is why you decided to tell her instead of me, Lily. I thought I was your best friend; even better, I'm your blood!"

"I know," said Lily. "But I didn't tell Cassie, either! She figured it out!"

Roxy went quiet but seemed upset.

"I'm sorry," said Fred suddenly. "But will somebody please enlighten me as to what the bloody hell I just heard?"

All of us turned toward him. "Um," I said, "Lily?"

Lily seemed torn. She obviously didn't want to have to answer this. Emotion after emotion flashed across her face; first sadness, then anger, and then finally resolve, and just as I thought she would say something...

She ran.

Before I could even react Lily had run from the room, her red hair flying out behind her. It took a moment for my brain to register what had happened before I ran after her, down the stairs, toward the common room. Luckily I ran a bit faster than her, but that didn't stop her from making it around the corner before I could catch up. Unfortunately, I lost her then and I didn't know where she had gone. Thinking quickly, I thought about where she might be.

She wouldn't have gone back to the Tower, that would be the most obvious place. She wouldn't have gone to the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff common rooms either; she couldn't get into the Ravenclaw common room without help and she had nobody in Hufflepuff to run to. Slytherin was out too. She wouldn't have gone out to see anyone, especially since that were where her brother, who would ask her what happened, was.

The Quidditch pitch was out. I didn't see her going out after dark, almost after curfew, to walk around the grass. Lily wasn't a Quidditch fanatic, though she did like the sport. She didn't have a broom and even if she did, she wouldn't go out to fly randomly, either.

She might go to the kitchens. She had enjoyed it the last time we had gone. I decided that that was a good place to guess and, picking up my pace, I started running down toward the kitchens.

It, of course, took me a few minutes to get all the way down to the kitchen's level, but when I finally reached the pear, I had to take a breath before giving it a tickle so I didn't accidentally scratch it instead in my haste.

As the portrait swung open I stepped inside to find the most amazing smell I had ever encountered. The smell of buttered rolls met my nose and I couldn't help but forget my task momentarily as I closed my eyes and sniffed the air.

As I reopened my eyes, I ventured farther into the kitchens and found Lily inside, a small house-elf sitting next to her as she looked down at the table, nibbling on a roll. The house-elf was seemingly talking to her in a very low tone, but Lily was shaking her head minimally, looking ready to cry.

"Lily?" I called quietly.

Lily looked up quickly, her eyes wide. "How did you find me?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I know you," I said. "And I couldn't think of another place you would be."

"Well it's nice to know that at least one person deemed it necessary to try to find me," Lily answered bitterly.

"That's not fair," I answered. "The others are looking too. I just got a head start because my brain registered that you had left before theirs did."

Lily looked down. "So why are you here?" she asked. "Do you want to go back to talking about it? Because Cassie, I can't right now. That's why I left in the first place." She picked back up her roll and started nibbling on it again.

I sighed and walked forward, grabbing the roll out of her hand. "Stop eating your problem away," I said. "And no, I don't plan on making you talk. I, personally, am over the subject. What you need to do now is get up, go back up to the dorm, and suck it up and face your problem head on. I doubt anyone will want to talk about it anymore anyway. Roxy isn't thick and Fred... well, Fred knows when to shut up."

Lily smiled slightly at the last part. Then all the color drained from her face and she gasped. "What if she already told a bunch of the family why I ran off?" she asked, panicking.

"I doubt she did," I said, "I mean, she isn't dumb. She knows when to not tell about something."

"O-Okay," said Lily. "I, um, I'll go back up in a minute then, okay? I need a little bit to just calm down."

I nodded. "Okay," I said, "But hurry. I'll be back up at the dorm. It's almost curfew, though."

She nodded back and I handed her the roll back before turning and walking out.

As I turned the corner away from the kitchens, I shrieked as a hand came to cover my mouth and I was whirled back against the wall. "Quiet!" I heard a familiar voice say as I opened my eyes, which had shut tightly in fright.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy!" I said through his hand.

In front of me stood my brother and, unsurprisingly, his best friend. "Did you find Lily?" asked Scorpius as he removed his hand.

"Yes," I said with a glare. "But she isn't coming back to the dorm until later. Why are you not in your dorm?"

"Because Roxy came to get us, talking about Lily running away and her needing found," said Potter. "The whole family is out looking for her now."

"How did you find her so fast?" asked Scorpius.

"Because I couldn't think of another place she would go so close to curfew," I said. "Now let's go. I promised her that she could go to the dorm on her own time, as soon as she wanted to, with no interferance from me. I can't be here when she goes to come back."

"Alright," said Scor. He grabbed my wrist. "Come on."

With that we started heading back to the other end of the castle, back to the Tower. We moved in silence so that we could get back before Filch managed to find us. As soon as we made it to the Tower, Scorp waved his wand, closing his eyes in concentration before whispering an incantation. A spell erupted from his wand and instantly in front of me stood a dragon, which hovered in front of my brother for a moment while he murmered something to it.

After a moment the dragon flew away, down the hall and down the stairs. "What was that?" I asked after I told the Fat Lady the password and we walked in, turning to my brother.

"It was a Patronus," said Scor. "Al and I learned it the summer before third year. His dad wanted to teach us."

"It was cool," I said. "When can I learn?"

"Probably this summer," said Scor with a shrug. "Mister Potter wants all of his kids to learn the summer before their third year and he'll probably let you learn too if you ask."

"Sounds cool," I said. Before I could even get the words out of my mouth the common room portrait swung open and in stepped every Wotter I could possibly think of.

"Where is she?" asked Rose as soon as she caught sight of us. She looked straight at me. "Is she back yet?"

"No," I said, "And you can't be here when she gets back, either." My eyes were hard as I glared at the whole of them. "Lily is fine. She's a little bit stressed right now and needs time to herself. All of you need to leave right now so she can be relaxed when she gets back."

James stepped forward. "Why did she run in the first place?" he asked. "Roxy and Fred wouldn't tell us."

"For a good reason," I said. "Now all of you leave it alone."

Suddenly Potter stepped up from beside me, where he and Scor hadn't moved from since we got here. "She's right," he said. "If Lily wants you all to know then she'll tell us tomorrow when we come down to breakfast."

At that point I'm pretty sure that my eyes were as wide as platters and my mouth had dropped to the floor. Luckily for me, I was saved ultimate embarrassment because I wasn't the only one that had that reaction.

"Oh come on, Al," said Hugo, "She's your sister! Why don't you want to know what her problem is?"

"Because trying to get it out of her unwillingly is worse than her just not telling me," said Potter. "She'll tell us if she wants to." His face hardened. "Now all of you need to get back to your common rooms before it gets too far past curfew." He turned to Scorpius. "Us too," he said.

Scorpius nodded. Smiling, he gave me a hug before both boys left.

Turning to the rest of the Wotters, I glared at them all. "Get back to wherever you belong," I said. "Now."

Fortunately for me, it actually worked and most all of them left, grumbling as they did. Fred and Roxy were the only ones that didn't leave.

"We need to talk," I said. The two nodded.

Leading them over to the couches, which were deserted now, I sat down. "Now," I said, "Both of you know that you can't tell anyone about what happened tonight."

"I know," said Fred. "But how am I supposed to keep this from James? He already tried to get what happened out of me earlier. He's my best friend, Cassie!"

"I realize that," I answered. "But what am I supposed to do? You know how Lily will react if James comes after her, which you know he will."

"Well that doesn't help anything," Roxy said. "So what do you suggest? My brother couldn't keep a secret to save his life, and you know it. Not from James, anyway."

I turned to Fred and glared. "You need to try," I said. "Trust me, I would just use a memory charm on you if you want, but I can't yet. I simply don't have the skill level as it is."

Fred looked affronted. "There's no need for that," he said. "I'm simply saying that I don't know how long I can keep this secret for. I can try, but no promises."

"Fine," I said, sighing. "I'll let that slide. But you have to try to keep it a secret, Fred. I'm serious."

"I'll try," he answered with a nod. I nodded back and then looked at Roxy. "And you?"

"I'll try," she echoed, "But you know Lucy will want to know."

"Yes," I said, "And she'll know if Lily wants her to."

Roxy nodded and then yawned. "Now can we go to bed? Lily will be back soon."

"Yep," I answered. We all nodded and began walking back up to our dorms.

If only I'd known then what would come to happen.


	9. Cassie and The Second Marauders

**Warning: This is _NOT _****a JSP/OC fic. This is strictly ASP/OC. James and Cassie are like brother and sister, and any teasing that goes on by the characters to suggest otherwise is strictly their doing and not in any way foreshadowing for later chapters. The same goes for Cassie and Fred II. James, Fred, and Cassie are as close as brothers and sisters are usually. They will banter and play. They will not be romantically involved with each other in any way.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View**  
The next day, I woke up to the sun barely shining through our windows and sighed. This wasn't the first time I had woken up earlier than usual. Ever since about a week ago I had been going to bed earlier and waking up the same way. I hated being awake for the first thirty minutes, but I could never get back to sleep.

Groaning, I got out of bed and decided that now was the prime time to get the long, hot bath that my body had been craving for over a week with no time for more than a shower. I took my fluffy robe and brought it into the bathroom, instantly turning on the water and putting on my special vanilla-scented bath soap. I stripped quickly before getting in and I sighed as my overly-cold (as usual) skin met the warm water. I submerged myself up to my chin in the water and closed my eyes as I tried to relax my muscles.

I didn't fall asleep, like I knew I wouldn't, and I didn't get out until about a half hour before the girls would be getting up at eight. I walked over to the mirror and washed my face, getting my wet hair into a long braid before getting dressed in my school clothes. I then walked out of the bathroom and into our dorm, where I grabbed my backpack and wand and proceeded to the common room.

As I walked into the common room, I sat on the couch and sat back, opening my book and beginning to read.

* * *

By the time that I finally got pulled out of my own little "book world," as my mother calls it, it was about twenty minutes later and I jumped as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Turning, I saw James almost running down the steps, muttering profanities under his breath.

I smirked - one of my rare ones - and turned to him. "Geez," I said, "You kiss your mum with that mouth?"

He jumped about a foot in the air and looked up at me, his eyes wide. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't know that you would be up. Um, I'm late for something and I have to go. I'll see you later at breakfast, okay?"

Before I had barely even gotten my response out he was gone, running out the portrait and leaving me behind, very confused.

I wondered for a moment what he could be doing, and for about a moment my conscientious side, which told me that it was none of my business, won, before my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself running out of the common room after him.

My feet ran, yet again, down the Tower stairs and nearly tripped when I suddenly stopped, hearing noises from around the corner. "Sorry," James was saying. "I got up late and then Cassie was in the common room."

"Did she follow you?" asked another voice - it had to be Fred.

"No," said James after a pause. "I don't think so."

"No offence," said a third voice that seemed familiar but I couldn't quite place, "But as sweet as she is, I still don't think she would really approve of this. That's kind of why we aren't letting anyone in on the secret, remember?"

"I know," said James, "But I doubt she followed me anyway. Let's just head to the Room, okay?"

There was a pause before a fourth voice, again familiar, answered. "Okay," he said. "Let's go."

I waited until I heard footsteps heading away from the corner to begin following again. Why did these four not want me following them? I wracked my brain for people who talked like the two other boys, because I knew that I recognized the voices, but I couldn't quite place them.

Eventually, with the four boys' footsteps halting every so often from around a corner, I found myself at the seventh floor, right where the Room of Requirement was. I head one of their footsteps as the paced outside the Room for a moment before I heard the bricks in the wall moving and then steps as they walked in. Knowing that I only had about fifteen seconds until the door closed, I ran for it, making it inside just before it did.

The sight that awaited me was astounding.

The room honestly looked like it was outside rather than inside the castle, with the ceiling like the one in the great hall in that it reflected the early morning sun-shine of the day, and the floor was grass rather than floor. There were trees all around me, though I wasn't sure what kind of magic could possibly have made any of this possible. And then, as I walked forward more, into a small, clear meadow past the initial clump of trees, I froze.

There stood a stag. A beautiful stag with a light brown coat, which couldn't have been any shorter than six feet tall without the added height of its' prongs. It looked over at me as I entered with a wide-eyed stare, like I was a muggle car and it was caught in the headlights.

"Oh my Merlin," I said.

And then, before my eyes, suddenly the stag changed and in it's place stood James.

My eyes widened and I gave a shriek before a hand covered my mouth from behind me.

"Shush!" I heard Fred's voice say. I whirled around and looked at him with wide eyes. "Was James just a STAG?" I asked. "Did he become and animagi? What happened!"

"Yes," said another voice from behind me again, over toward James. I whirled again to find Lorcan and Lysander standing there. "Sorry," said Lysander. "Um, see, we weren't going to tell anyone-" Accusatory glance at James "-Did you follow James, then?"

"Yeah," I answered. "But, I mean, I was just curious because honestly who gets up at seven in the morning to rush out of the common room like there's a fire someplace? What was I supposed to do?"

James ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't plan on your being awake," he said. "I mean, you especially never get up early and not many others do either, so I figured it would be fine, but then I slept a little late and you were on the couch and-"

"Yeah, yeah," said Fred. "But the point is, you can't tell anyone about this, ever, Cassie, okay?"

I looked between the four. Then I sighed. "I keep your secret if you keep mine?" I asked Fred, biting my lip. I knew it would be just as hard for him to keep Lily's secret from James as it would be for me to keep his from the other girls.

Fred rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah," he said quietly.

I nodded. "Okay then," I said. Then I turned to the others. "Now, you all owe me an explanation for all of this."

"Alright," said Lorcan. "Here's the deal." He sat down on the grass and I walked closer to the others, following suit as the others did as well. "Have you ever heard of the Marauders?"

"The ones that James are named after?" I asked. "The group that Mister Po- Harry's father and godfather made?"

"Yeah," said Lysander. "Well, James was telling us about midway through first year about how they became unregistered animagi in their third year to help Remus Lupin - Teddy's dad - out with his lycanthropy. Well, Fred over there had the amazing idea that we would all be like the Second Generation Marauders. We would be pranksters and we would become animagi."

"So we started looking up the books on how to do it from the library," said James. "We started asking my dad about the Marauders more and he started telling us a little about them. After a while, about third year, we started doing the actual practical work that went along with it."

"Well, the practical stuff is harder than it looks," said Fred, "So it took us until late last year to even start being able to change ourselves halfway without hurting ourselves. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until about a week ago that James learned to change completely into a stag."

"But I guess that's fitting since he's named after Harry's dad, who was a stag as well," said Lysander.

"So far we think that my animagus form will be a phoenix," said Fred, "Since the most that we've ever been able to get me to change into has a beak, some kind of bright red-orange feathers, and talons."

"And mine is supposed to be a grey wolf," said Lorcan. "I've got really big, grey paws and lost of grey fur."

"I'm a snow leopard," said Lysander. "I'm pretty positive. I've almost got the entire transformation down." He frowned and looked down at his legs. "It's just that my legs don't always change yet."

I laughed. "Well, you guys have had an eventful few years," I said. "How did you guys not get caught yet?"

James shrugged. "Because Merlin is looking out for us," he said, "Otherwise mum would have killed us the five times that she almost caught us this summer alone."

I giggled as James said that before looking up at the sky. I gasped. "Merlin!" I yelled, jumping up. "Classes are going to start soon! I'm late for breakfast!"

The boys jumped up with me and we all ran out of the Room, sprinting to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Just as we got to the Great Hall, however, the food on the tables started disappearing. I had just enough time to grab a glass of milk before that disappeared, too. Disappointed, I chugged the one glass I had before heading to class, glad that I had had sense that morning to grab my backpack and wand before going down to the common room.

Disappointed, I gulped down the milk that I had before putting a smile on my face and deciding to just eat a little more at lunch than usual. Turning, I headed to my first class, where I knew the girls would be waiting with questions as to my whereabouts this morning.

The things we do to keep secrets from our friends.


	10. Cassie and The Rest of The Year

**Warning: Major fluff ahead. Also, Scorp/Rose haters might want to look away now...**

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View**  
A good portion of that semester went by very fast. I learned to turn a mouse into a goblet without keeping it's tail on the third try, but that was pretty much it. Before I knew it Christmas was upon me. I had to start making plans for the holidays, and for that I needed assistance. I wrote my mother the first week of December to ask where I needed to be. Apparently she, dad, and my maternal grandparents were going to be in Paris for the holidays, so I found myself making arrangements to go to the Potter house.

I woke early on the day that we were supposed to be going back to London, earlier than most of the girls except for Roxy, and found myself all packed and ready before breakfast. However, I didn't dare venture into my trunk to fish out my books, which I had already packed, and so I found myself bored out of my mind as I waited for the train to arrive.

When it finally did, of course, the others weren't ready. Lily had yet to find her sock, which she had somehow lost between the night before and eight that morning, so we were almost late for the train while trying to search for it, only to find it under one of her bed sheets, having had the bed made right on top of it.

The train ride, luckily, was uneventful and I found myself enjoying the company of my friends. When we got to the station I relished in the warm hugs that I received from Ginny, Harry, and the others. Nana Molly, of course, was happy to see me and the first thing she said when she saw all of us kids was that we all looked "peaky" and not to worry because dinner would be waiting for us at home. Merlin bless that wonderful woman.

She had a full ham waiting for all of us when we got there, along with mashed potatoes, corn, asparagus - my favorite no matter how much Scorp hated it - and a side chicken noodle soup for those of us that were still hungry after the main course. Needless to say, I was completely and utterly stuffed by the time that I stopped eating long enough to register that I might have eaten a tad too fast.

All of us went to bed that night with full stomachs and smiles on our faces, and I found for the first time since leaving for Hogwarts that year that the morning after I slept past seven o' clock.

* * *

On Christmas morning I woke up to Roxy jumping on my stomach and telling me to wake up. Groaning, I tried to shove her off, but she refused to budge until I was sufficiently woken up and completely unable to get back to sleep even if I tried - which, of course, I did.

Of course we went downstairs soon after, me being far too lazy to even attempt to get out of my pajamas. As we walked downstairs, as tired as I was, even I couldn't keep the grin off of my face as I saw all of the Wotters - plus Lorcan, Lysander, and of course my brother - sitting next to the tree already. All of them had plates of waffles in their laps and mugs of hot cocoa, and as I walked into the room I was greeted with my own plate and mug by Nana.

Within ten minutes I had wolfed down my waffle and was sipping on my cocoa while presents were passed out.

Never once did I stop smiling that day, and I found myself more than once laughing the hardest I had in a long while.

I had several of presents from not only mum and dad, but the Wotters, Scorpius, and even Harry and Ginny. My favorite present was from everyone collectively.

It was a goblin-made, silver locket in the shape of a heart, with a star in the middle and in the middle of that was a diamond-encrusted C. The locket itself was just from my family. When you opened the locket, however, it was charmed so that the pictures inside changed. The first picture was of me and Scorpius, at two and four respectively, with his arm around me and both of us laughing, while the second picture was of mum and dad with us in the same picture from around the same time. Then there were pictures of me growing up, and then finally there were pictures of me and the Wotters from Hogwarts and during the last summer. They assured me that we could also get more pictures added as time went on.

As they showed it to me and explained that the pictures changed, I found myself with tears welling in my eyes. I gave every one of them hugs and thanked all of them, my voice breaking.

Aside from that, I also got a wand holster from Lily that went around my waist like a belt, a bottle of pepper spray from my dad - in blue, one of my favorite colors - a whole bunch of muggle books from Hermione and Ron, a book titled, "How to Teach Yourself to Play Quidditch" from Scorp, who wanted me to try out next year, and a bunch of other things from everyone.

My favorite part about the day, however, happened toward the end. Everyone was eating dinner when Scorpius and Rose walked into the room together, laughing and talking. Now, earlier that morning, Fred, James, Lorcan, and Lysander had put up magical mistletoe up all over the house, and while everyone had been careful to walk through doorways only one at a time (besides the adults - BLECH) apparently those two had forgotten.

Stuck in the doorway, the two looked up almost immediately upon realizing their predicament, and looks of realization crossed their faces at exactly the same time. I couldn't help but giggle at the wide-eyed look that my brother sported.

"Well kiss her already!" I said, laughing. "It's not like you weren't going to anyway!"

Scorp looked at me with a look that could have killed the whole of London. "Oh, shut it," he said once before turning back to Rose and quickly pressing his lips to hers.

Cheers broke out all across the room, as well as catcalls when they didn't immediately pull away, and by the time the two had left the doorway, they were both blushing bright red - quite a sight, with my brother's complexion - and grinning from ear to ear.

That is, until Ron got up from the table, a flabbergasted look on his face, and asked my brother to step outside for a little talk.

I have to admit, I laughed pretty hard at that.

By the end of the day, I had found myself completely tired out, although happy, and by the time Nana's dinner was over, I found myself laying on the couch, my head on Roxy's lap as she ran her fingers through my hair while everyone else was sitting around the room, watching a movie.

I fell asleep with the biggest smile that I had ever worn.

* * *

Christmas break, unfortunately, was never meant to last forever and as the weather gradually heated slightly, I found myself unable to go to the Room with the Marauders as I had come accustomed to. In their fifth year, the boys were already having trouble keeping to their studying habits, and thus they spent nearly every second doing so. Our almost-daily Room visits turned into once-ever-other-week visits and before I knew it, it was March.

Spring dawned on me suddenly and I couldn't help but smile the first time that I took Onyx outside with me to play in the grass in front of the castle. The Quidditch games were well attended, since - while neither had made the team - Lily and Roxy dragged me to all of them. Although, to be fair, I didn't exactly object. The very last game was in early May, against Hufflepuff and Slytherin. I don't think that it takes a genius to figure out who won. If I can say one thing about my brother it's that he is good at Quidditch, and Potter was no amateur either.

However, with spring I found a growing worry - a few days after I started letting Onyx out more, I noticed that her belly began growing. I quickly owled my mum to ask what she thought, and after a thorough evaluation via owl, mum came to the conclusion that Onyx was most likely pregnant. At almost two years old, this wasn't exactly an oddity for Onyx to have conceived her first litter.

Unfortunately mum told me in no uncertain terms that I would not be permitted to keep the kittens. I would have to find a home for them. And thus, when Onyx gave birth in mid-May, I had already found homes for all three beautiful kittens. I had determined that the daddy cat was a third year girls' snow-white cat, and the girl absolutely refused to be of any help whatsoever in finding a home for the kittens. Therefor, after looking around for what seemed like forever, I found that my solution to the problem was really closer than I had thought.

Roxy, apparently, loved kittens but her mother hadn't wanted her to have one until she was responsible enough. However, when the kittens were born I noticed that she took an instant liking to the one kitten that was born with pitch black fur except for it's nose and mouth, which had white fur that was comparable to snow. And thus, I owled her mother the week before summer and asked if we could arrange for that kitten to be a birthday present. Thank Merlin that Roxy's mom is as nice as she is.

The other two kittens were, unfortunately, given away soon before school ended, but it made the job of hiding that Roxy's present was on the train with us much easier. After all, it's not easy to hide one kitten, let alone two or three, especially when their mother is constantly looking for them.

Let's just say that the ride home was none too easy. And yet, it was definitely worth it.


	11. Cassie and the Summer After Second Year

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Summer - Age Thirteen  
****Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**I made it to the train station with a grin on my face as I thought about what Roxy would look like when she realized that she had a new kitten. The kitten had been hidden throughout the trainride with Fred, who was in a different compartment than any of us, and would be going to stay with Rose's family until Roxy's birthday.**  
**

"Cassie!"

A grin lit up my face as my mum and dad ran over to me, my mum's face stretched into a grin as her arms reached out to hug me. I ran forward toward her and hugged her tightly, my head coming almost up to her ears. "Hi mum," I said happily.

My mum looked down at me and grinned, chuckling. "It's nice to see you Cassie," she said after a moment as I pulled away, her grin still firmly in place. As I was about to respond, however, two arms wrapping around me prevented it and I turned around to see my dad, a grin lighting up his own sharp features.

"Daddy!" I jumped and hugged him tightly, the top of my head only coming to his collar, and he laughed.

"Bonjour ma reine," dad said back. See, he'd been calling me "ma reine" since I was born, in reference to the origin behind my name.

See, Cassiopeia was the vain wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia, whose constellation stands next to hers in the sky, and they're the only husband-and-wife couple among the constellations. According to legend, when Cassiopeia was brushing her hair one day she dared to say that she was more beautiful even than the sea Nereids. There were fifty Nereids and one of them was Amphitrite, who was married to Poseidon and implored him to punish Cassiopeia. In reply, the sea god sent the monster depicted in the constellation Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. In order to make te monster go away, Cassiopeia and Cepheus sent their daughter, Andromeda, to be chained to a rock in sacrifice. The constellation Cassiopeia is depicted in a throne, sometimes upright and sometimes upside-down as though she's about to fall out.

I dont know why, but apparently since naming me after the terrible queen, dad has called me "my queen" in french my whole life. I personally don't know why he would name me after such a tale, but there's not much I could do about it anyway, so que sera sera.

I grinned back at dad. "Bonjour, papa," I said back in French.

"Ready to go?" he asked me with a twinkle in his grey eyes.

I shook my head. "Gimme one second," I said.

Dad nodded and I turned and ran toward the Wotters. "Lily," I yelled. She looked at me from where she had been talking to the others. "I have to go!"

Instantly she ran and jumped into my arms, hugging me, and we fell, giggling. The way we fell, she was sitting on my legs, me lying flat on the ground. Just as I was getting up, though, suddenly another weight bounced onto my legs. "Dog pile!" my other best friend, Roxanne, yelled.

And thus, five minutes later, stomach hurting with my giggles, I finally managed to get the horde of Weasleys that had jumped on me off. I sat up again as the last one got off and brushed myself off. Before i could lift myself up, suddenly a hand came into my line of vision, trying to help me up. I looked up and stopped.

Albus was looking at me with his signature smirk. "Care for some help up?" he offered.

I nodded curtly and grabbed his hand, and he pulled me up as though I weighed nothing. As a matter of fact, because I was pushing myself up at the same time he was pulling, when I finally stood, I stumbled forward slightly and found myself falling facefirst into his chest. He caught me just before I did so and put me back upright. His smirk widened as he looked down at me, a good six inches over my 5'1 frame.. "I know girls usually fall for me pretty quick," he quipped, "But usually when they do it they're at least standing upright. Clumsy Cass."

I could feel my ears burn red, not in embarrassment, but in anger. "Stop calling me Cass!" I said. I punched his arm.

He didn't even seem like he felt it. Jerk.

"Sure thing, Cass," he answered with another smirk before turning on his heel, placing his hands in his pockets, and walking away. I stared after him for a moment with a glare before turning to the rest of the family, who were packing up. "Bye guys!" I called as I walked back to my parents. "See you soon!"

"See ya!" Lily yelled back. She blew me a kiss, which I caught. I laughed.

When I finally got back to mum and dad, Scorpius was already there from where he'd been saying goodbye to Rose - who he still hadn't gotten the guts to ask out. Apparently, even after Christmas he thought that she might not like him, that asking her would ruin their friendship or whatever.

My brother is the biggest idiot in the world.

"Done flirting then?" I asked him with my most innocent smile.

He glared at me and his usually pale cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Shut up, Cassie," he answered.

Mum cut in. "Hush, both of you," she answered goodnaturedly. "Now, Cassie, grab you're brother's hand."

I looked at my brother and we exchanged glares, holding eye contact for a moment before dissolving into grins and taking eachother's hand. I took my mum's hand as well and just like that, a tugging at my navel that made me slightly nauseous alerted me to my being home.

I put a hand to my stomach, which hurt slightly, but the pain faded away soon after. I looked around myself, where my family was brushing themselves off. "Well then," said mum as she put away her coat and shoes. "How long do we have you this year?"

I felt a slight pang in my chest. I always left them so I could see Lily and the others, but I didn't mean to. "I can stay home this year," I answered. "I mean, I still want to see Lily and Roxanne and Lucy, but they can come over, can't they?"

"Hey!" said Scorpius. "If this house is being bombarded with girls, I want to invite my friends too."

"Tell you what," my father offered. "If both of you can make it through the first month, after all the birthdays are over you can each have your friends over for the rest of the summer if their parents agree. Deal?"

My mother nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds fair," I said.

"Deal," my brother answered.

My father smiled again. "Now that that's settled," he said, "Who wants to go to the cenima?"

* * *

All of the birthdays passed quickly. They were amazing, and our parties were extremely fun. Roxanne loved the kitten, having thought I'd sold it already, and upon recieving it she took hardly a second to hug me tightly, along with the others, and squeal happily into my ear. I giggled at her enthusiasm.

True to their word, my parents talked to the Wotter parents and not only did Lily, Roxanne, and Lucy come over, but Scorpius was allowed to invite - who else? - Albus, but he also invited Desiree Zabini's brother, Daniel, and Vincent Goyle. Neither boy was a particularly nasty person, so I didn't have a problem with them. Potter, on the other hand? He was an evil that unfortunately it seemed I would have to endure.

The day that they all started to arrive came quickly. As the floo went off for the first time, I was up in my room getting dressed for the day. As I walked out to greet the others, I inspected myself one more time in the mirror.

My hair had grown since the beginning of the year, and it had started forming curls. Right then, it was up in a high ponytail that reached a couple inches under my midback and it was curling into small, loose ringlets toward the middle and bottom. I'd grown in height since getting off the train, and now I was a couple of inches taller than I was. I was wearing a pair of jean shorts that went to my mid-thigh and a Bulgarian National Quidditch Team jersey that was slightly oversized and went to a couple inches under my waist.

I walked down the stairs to the living room and saw Lucy and Roxy already standing there, along with Vincent Goyle and my brother. "Lucy!" I said with a grin. "Roxy!" They ran over to me and we all hugged tightly and laughed. Even though we'd seen each other only a couple of weeks before, it was still good to see them again.

The floo went off again and out stepped another redhead - Lily. I didn't even register the floo going off a second time as I quickly walked over to her and hugged her tightly before bringing her and the others to the stairs, helping them grab their bags. "Scorpius," I called as we startedwalking upstairs. "We'll be up here for a bit! Call if you want to see us!"

"Fat chance of that!" Scorpius called back.

I ignored my brother and ran upstairs with the girls, where we all sat on the bed in a circle, cross-legged. "So," I said, "Updates?"

"Nothing much on this end," said Lily. "Everything's pretty much the same."

"Same here," said Roxy.

"I've got something," Lucy said with a small, secretive smile. "But you can't tell anyone. It's supposed to be a secret."

"We won't tell," Lily, Roxy, and I all said in unison.

"Good," said Lucy. She leaned toward us and we did the same. "Alright... my mum's having another baby!"

All of us stood still for a moment, and Lucy leaned back with a satisfied almost-smirk on her face.

"Oh my gosh," I said after a moment. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Lucy said. "I'm really excited."

"This is gonna be great!" Roxy said.

"I can't wait!" Lily added.

"Me neither," admitted Lucy. "But it's really early on, and mum and dad think it's best to keep it a secret for now."

"Smart," I said. "So what's she like?"

"She's sick all the time," admitted Lucy. "But only in the mornings usually, and sometimes the afternoons. She can't eat a lot of her favorite foods anymore, and she gets cranky a bit easier. But she's happy, so I am too, you know?"

"I know what you mean," I said.

I looked outside, and the sky was still bright with the light of midday. I suddenly got an idea and grinned. "What do you say we celebrate with a game of Quidditch?" I suggest.

The girls grin and reach into their bags, which must have been put an undetectable extension charm on, since they pulled out their brooms from inside. "Let's do it," said Roxy. "But let's change first, yeah?"

The other girls agreed, and they left for a minute to change their clothes, agreeing to meet in the back yard.

* * *

The impromtu Quidditch game was played a few minutes later. Because there were so few of us, we decided to just split into teams of two - one chaser per team, one seeker. Lily and I were on a team and she decided to be seeker since she's got more talent at it.

We played until it got dark and our stomachs demanded to have nourishment. We came inside then, just in time for mum to tell me to wash up and get ready for dinner.

The rest of the summer was amazing. I loved being with my friends at my house, though I loved theirs, and I hardly saw the boys except for at meals. By the time it was time to go back to school, I was happy to go, but also sad to leave. The girls and I got our school things quickly and the morning of September 1 came with the promise of a good year.


	12. Cassie and The Staring Contest

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Third Year - Age Thirteen  
****Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**The train station was crowded, per usual, on September 1. As I walked to the platform with my family, dodging muggle businessmen with briefcases, small families rushing to get to the Express, and other miscellaneous people, a bright smile lit up my face. I'd made it through the summer with Potter in the house, and the girls and I had had a lot of fun besides. I hoped this year would be as fun as the others.

As I boarded the train shortly before the whistle blew, I was suddenly grabbed by the arm from behind, making me gasp in shock and swivel around, my right hand already resting on my wand, which was in my pocket. As I turned, a mop of slightly shaggy raven-colored hair came into my vision, as well as similar crimson hair and two brown-haired blokes.

"James Sirius Potter," I growled. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry Cassie." James had the decency, at least, to look the least bit ashamed, but the others just smirked.

"Jumpy, little Cass?" Fred jested.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You want me to cut off your fingers?" I asked.

"Like I said," he answered, "I'll take my chances."

I rolled my eyes. "I take it you guys had a reason for almost killing me?"

"Yeah," said Lorcan. "Come with us."

I nodded and the boys led me to a compartment not far away before shutting the door firmly.

"So," said James, "Did you find time to perfect your animagus?"

I chewed my lower lip. "I was a bit busy," I said, "But I got a little bit done."

"Us too," said Lysander. "Watch this."

The boys stood again from where they'd been sitting, grabbed their wands, and made the movements as one. Within a moment, in the place of my friends was a snow leopard, a greywolf, a phoenix, and a stag.

It got extremely crowded extremely fast.

"You guys did it!" I cried happily as they changed back. "That's so cool!"

"I know right?" the boys all wore identical grins as James spoke. "Show us what you've done."

I nodded and stood as they sat back down. Waving my wand, I felt the familiar sensation of a height decrease.

Because of our almost daily visits to the Room last year, I'd almost perfected my form there, and we were sure I was a dove, with feathers as white as snow. At that point, I'd made it almost completely there - problem being, my slate-grey eyes refused to transform from human eyes to bird eyes, and I was still several sizes too big.

"Nice," James complimented, putting his finger out to me. I stepped onto it and he lifted me up to eye level. "You've made progress," he said.

"How adorable," Fred teased. "It's awesome, little Cass."

I hooted at him indignantly and flew over - something I was happy to say I had gotten better at - and nipped his finger with my bird beak.

"Ow," he said, though I knew he was just kidding. I didn't bite that hard. "Still got some fight in you though."

I grinned - well, as well as I could given that I was still in dove form - and flew back over to my seat before changing back into my human form. "Pretty good, yeah?" I gloated with a grin.

"Great for how much time you've had so far," Lorcan answered. "Took us, what, a year more than you've had?"

The other boys nodded and I just shrugged. "All in a day's work," I said. I reached down and grabbed my trunk, which I had set on the seat beside where I had sat. "Now, if you don't mind, I have friends who want to see me."

"Aww," James whinged, "Little Cass doesn't want to spend time with us anymore?"

I laughed. "Nope," I said. "You're incorrigable." I walked over to the door and walked out. "Bye," I called with a wave.

It didn't take me long to catch sight of the others again. "Sorry about that," I excused as I walked into their compartment. I looked at Lily, who - along with the others of course - had looked up upon my arrival. "Your brother wanted to talk for a minute."

"James?" Lily asked, puzzled.

I rolled my eyes good-naturedly. "No," I said sarcastically. "Albus. You know, the brother I hate."

Lily laughed. "Well excuse me," she said. "I didn't know you made a habit to go off and speak to James alone."

I scoffed. "I wasn't alone," I said. "Lorcan, Lysander, and Fred were there as well."

"Excuses, excuses," said Roxy. "But anyway - guys! It's our third year! Hogsmead is this year! What are we gonna do?"

"Um, get dates?" I asked.

"Correct!" Roxy said. "Let's make a pact - all of us have to have a date for the second Hogsmead trip of the year."

"Why not the first?" Lily inquired.

"Because we're all going together on the first one," said Lucy. Roxy nodded with a grin.

"As a matter of fact, let's make a bet," said Lily. "First one with a date gets ten galleons; second gets eight; third gets five. Last gets nothing."

I laughed. "i'm in," I said. "But I bet Roxy gets first place."

Lily and Lucy both nodded. Roxy just blushed. And, just like that, the bet was placed.

* * *

The opening feast that night was amazing, as per usual. The girls and I met up with some of their cousins (only Albus, Rose, James, Fred, Lorcan, Lysander, Molly, and Louis were still in school) and stuffed ourselves on the amazing Hogwarts food. It went the same way as usual, actually. That is, up until just before it was time to go up to our dorms.

Roxy caught sight of something over her shoulder that had her eyes wide. She quickly poked Lily's arm to get her and Lucy's attention, and then she pointed to a spot somewhere behind us. I turned around to see what could be so important -

And my jaw promptly dropped.

At the Slytherin table, a commotion was happening. Rose Weasley was obviously angry. Her usually slightly pale, freckled face was a bright scarlet that almost matched her hair, and she was glaring at, well, my brother.

They seemed to be having an argument. I don't think I'd ever seen them have a fight like this one. He looked murderous and she looked even angrier. As their voices started getting louder, the Great Hall seemed to quieten as everyone caught notice.

"-an't you just give it a chance?" Rose yelled.

"I have reasons, Rose!" Scorp answered. "Why can't you understand that?"

"Why can't you understand that I love you?" Rose shot back.

What happened next happened almost quicker than my eyes could understand it. Scorpius growled and then moved forward, his hand going to Rose's hair as he crashed their lips together. If it was possible, I'm pretty sure that my jaw would have dropped even more than it already was. Rose froze for a second before responding in kind, her fingers going to his hair as well.

When I finally recovered enough to comprehend exactly _who_ I was watching snog, I blushed and squeaked slightly, looked away - trying to find anywhere besides that to put my eyes. Unfortunately, however, they ended up moving only slightly to the left.

And locked on to a pair of green ones looking my way.

Potter stared at me for a second, and I stared right back. It was a staring contest that seemed to last forever. When he finally did look away, I was confused. Why was he looking at me in the first place? But then, maybe he was just trying not to look at his cousin snogging someone, same as I was with Scorpius.

Either way, the experience left me ever-so-slightly flustered, and I hardly noticed when finally Scorpius and Rose stopped locking lips and the feast went back on as usual until it was time to head back up to the dorm.

The girls and I spent the rest of the night talking about what had gone on at dinner - luckily with very little detail in the conversation since, well, _that's my brother._

As I fell asleep that night, my dreams were plagued with green, almond shaped eyes staring into my grey ones and black hair falling into a tanned face.

* * *

**Meanwhile...  
Albus' Point of View  
**I don't know what possessed me to look over at the Gryffindor table in that second. All I know is that, well, my best friend and my cousin were snogging. Who wants to be staring at that? So I looked around the Great Hall for somewhere, anywhere, to look besides that, and somehow my gaze landed on long, platinum hair that was for once left down instead of in a bun or ponytail or braid.

Her grey eyes turned and met mine and I kind of froze. Even across the room from me, I saw small differences in the color of her eyes and that of my best friend's. Scorpius' eyes were a different shade of grey; while his eyes were soft like storm clouds, Cassiopeia's eyes were hard like steel. For probably the first time since I can remember, she wasn't glaring at me, either. She almost looked puzzled - I could tell because she was scrunching up her nose, and she only did that when she was either angry, trying to think about something, or both.

That's when I noticed I had been staring. I looked away quickly, and soon enough Scorpius and Rose parted and it was time for dinner to be over. I left them to sort out their issues, and I walked almost in a daze down to the Slytherin dorms.

When Scorpius got down to the dorm, I looked at him. "You guys together yet?" I asked simply. He sighed but nodded, and I smiled. Finally. Merlin, they had started to annoy me a bit.

My best friend and I didn't talk very much after that. I laid down, but the only things that I saw as I closed my eyes were steel grey eyes and platinum hair hanging down in curls.

**A/N: Yeah, I know I'm chatty today but... What do you guys think? It's a little under 2,000 words but I didn't want to ruin this chapter with too much unneeded info. Did you like Albus' POV? I wanted to let you know a bit more about what he's thinking as well, so that you can understand the thought process there. And for those of you that noticed his reference to her full name... Well, there's a reason for that. Love you all and please review!**


	13. Cassie and The Row With Potter

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Harry Potter, the Next Generation, or any of the characters mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. I do, however, own Frank and Alice Longbottom II, as well as Cassie Malfoy and any other characters that were not mentioned or named by J.K. Rowling.**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View  
**His eyes burned like flame through me, the emerald color piercing into my grey irises as he seethed. I could feel the fading red on my upper arm from where he'd dragged me into the abandoned classroom we were currently in.

"I cannot believe that you did that," he all but hissed at me.

"Yes you can," I shot back. "You just can't believe that you're thankful that I did."

"Okay Cassiopeia," he seethed, making me red with anger at the use of my full name, "Two things. First, what you did back there was not okay. You completely humiliated me! And two, it wasn't your place anyway!"

"What was I supposed to do?" I all but shouted. "You obviously weren't okay with it anyway, and the chit deserved it!"

"That so called chit is one of my best friends, I'll have you know!"

"Oh really?" I asked. "Because it didn't look like she had friendship on her mind much, now did she?"

"What does it matter to you?" he yelled finally. "You hate me anyway!"

I glared at him. "If I didn't before, Potter," I said, "I do now."

With that, I turned and walked out of the classroom without another word.

* * *

**Earlier That Day...**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View:  
**I got very little sleep that night. Well, restful sleep, that is. And, in fact, when over the next two weeks I hardly ever got any sleep for the recurring dreams, I ended up on several occasions sleeping during breakfast in the Great Hall.

Today was one of those days.

"Cassie," I heard vaguely. I ignored it.

"Cassie," I heard again, more insistent this time.

I groaned. "Go away," I mumbled.

I heard a sigh, but whoever was trying to get my attention stopped. I dozed off again, and I was just about to fall completely asleep when -

"CASSIE!"

I jumped up, my body already upright and rigid before my eyes had even opened.

I looked around for the culprit; the only ones around me were - as I almost could have bet money on - Lily, Roxy, Lucy, and- Hugo?

"Hey Hu," I said. "Nice to see you again, mister not-around-much."

He grinned and rolled his eyes. "Well right now I'm here to tell you that it's time to be getting up. Almost everyone's gone and class is gonna start in less than five minutes."

I'm almost sure I went even paler than usual at that point. "Why didn't you get me up sooner?" I shrieked. I gathered my things and all but ran out of the Great Hall, along with Lily, Roxy, Lucy, and Hugo.

We made it to class just moments before it started, and of course because of such we got a look from Professor Lucian as we sat down.

And that was the start to one of the worst days of my life.

In Transfiguration, I hardly completed any of my spells with a result worthy of much more than an Acceptable. In Potions, my cauldron nearly exploded when I was so tired that I mixed up "root of asphodel" with a "root of daffodil". Don't ask me how I did that, by the way. Then, in Charms, I was unable to do anything, so close was I to falling asleep. I couldn't remember anything in Herbology, and by the time that the end of the day was there and it was time for dinner, my mood was completely soured.

I should have gone up to bed, not to the Great Hall.

I was tired and miserable when I got to the Great Hall finally, as well as having a headache, and I sat down next to Hugo with my head on his shoulder and my eyes closed as Roxy ran her fingers through my hair, both of them trying to make me feel better. "Why are you so tired today Cassie?" Hugo asked.

I shook my head. "Weird dreams," I said.

I could almost feel the confused looks that my friends were sending toward each other, but I decided to ignore them.

"Albus Potter, you absolute- you- you prat!" I winced at the sudden, shrill screech that I heard from the table opposite ours.

"I don't understand you," I heard a slightly quieter voice say, though it was still easy to hear with the dead silence that the Great Hall had been reduced to for the second night in a row. "One day you're fine with it, and the next moment you've decided that it's unfathomable that I might not like you like that anymore!"

I groaned quietly and looked up. There, next to the Slytherin table, was none other than the bane of my existence, having a row with -

Alice Longbottom?

"Because one moment you act like there might be something more between us, and the next you shrug me off like I'm nothing!" Alice argued back. "I can't believe you!"

"It's not my fault that you take my being nice as me coming onto you, Alice," Potter said back, still obviously trying to keep his voice down. "I've told you more times than I can count-

"Why?" she yelled. "Why don't you like me anymore? You think you can play with my emotions and then just leave? Is that it? You're worse than your bloody best friend, lying to Rose all those years and keeping her as a friend when he knew she wanted to be more and-"

I don't know exactly when I stood, probably sometime around when she first mentioned Scor, but I do know that her speech was suddenly cut short as I backhanded her. "Do not talk about my brother you bint!" I yelled. "Yes, he was thick, but no, he never lied. Yes, it was both of their fault that it took so long, but no, it is not your place to say so! Now, if you would stop being such a jerk to everyone, you would maybe understand that Albus Potter does _not_ have feelings for you and you need to find someone else."

"Why you-" her hand was raised and ready when suddenly a figure stepped between us.

"That is enough!" Potter shouted. He looked down at me angrily and I stared defiantly back for only a moment before he grabbed my upper arm and started dragging me out of the Great Hall, protests falling from my mouth like water from a faucet.

* * *

**Present...**

**Cassiopeia's Point of View:**  
He didn't let go until he got to the abandoned classroom. When I finally left there after our row, I went back up to the Gryffindor dorm and climbed straight into bed, only for the door to open less than a moment later. "Cassie!" said Lily as she and the other girls walked in. "What happened? Hugo and James and Scorpius were all ready to go after you two, but we told them to let you hash it out. Are you okay?"

The girls all came over, sitting next to me on the bed. "He yelled at me and I yelled back," I said. "Nothing really to report. Except maybe that that whole thing during Christmas of first year is pretty much null because I can't even attempt to deal with his idiocy anymore."

"I really don't understand why you two don't get along," Lily said. "I mean, you're really alike."

I glared. "There is nothing that I have in common with _that boy_."

"_That boy_ is my brother," said Lily. "I wish you would just get along."

"So do I, Lils," I said, "But it's not going to happen. We're just too different."

"Oh really?" said Roxy, "Well, did you know that he likes to watch Muggle movies, just like you? Or that he has a soft spot for cats, just like you?"

I stayed silent for a moment. "I don't care," I said finally. "He's a prat, and that's all there is to it. Now, can I please go to sleep?"

Lily sighed heavily. She knew there was no point arguing about it. "Fine," she said, standing up. She left the room without another word. I knew that I'd have to apologize later; but right now, all I wanted was to sleep. So, as the other girls followed Lily out, that's what I did.


End file.
